Nvidia launches Cambridge-1, UK's most powerful supercomputer, in Arm's neighbourhood

Nvidia has launched its Cambridge-1 supercomputer, with a focus on AI for healthcare, as part of larger plans to boost AI research in the university city itself and more widely across the UK. Part of Nvidia's Cambridge-1 supercomputer Part of Nvidia's Cambridge-1 supercomputer The Cambridge-1 is the highest ranking …

[Anonymous Coward]

pointless navel gaze

honestly is this the best they can come up with...

if your going to try and influence people do better Nvidia your name is attached its basically pointless give them some actual vector mathematical engines.

I hope no one is feeling good about this and instead realise how much an exercise in navel gazing this is...

[Mike 137]

"The idea is [...] you can send a vast amount of data without having to anonymize,..."

Not a brilliant idea, given the record of government services on both IT security and privacy. And likely to raise data protection concerns (supposing anyone in authority actually cares).

[Dan 55]

Re: "The idea is [...] you can send a vast amount of data without having to anonymize,..."

Indeed. Data is supposed to be anonymised before it leaves the NHS, not after it gets somewhere else.

[Chris Miller]

"Brexit-stricken", rilly?

You've had 5 years for chrissake. Time to blow your nose, dry those tears and move on, like a real grown-up.

[Dan 55]

Re: "Brexit-stricken", rilly?

Now we've done just over six months of Real Brexit™, it's starting to get entertaining. Why would you want people to move on when they can admire what Brexit really is in all its glory?

Also, praise where its due, Nvidia managed to find a lorry to transport the supercomputer. Easier said than done but apparently nothing to do with Brexit.

[Claverhouse]

Re: "Brexit-stricken", rilly?

If a screaming mob of fans led by a vulgar set of agitators board a bus and steer it into a wall, causing unfathomable damage, it seems singularly stupid and condescending to smugly admonish victims to 'Get Over It' five years, or fifty, years later.

Why the fuck should anyone 'get over' anything just because told to by the satisfied ?

[Arthur the cat]

"doing its best to associate Harlow with Cambridge"

An association we in Cambridge will deny vehemently.

[Red Ted]

Re: "doing its best to associate Harlow with Cambridge"

"Cambridge to London UK innovation corridor"

That sounds suspiciously like logo that one of the the Bedfordshire Councils had about being in the "Oxford - Cambridge Arc", which rather implied to me that they couldn't think of anything good to say about Bedfordshire.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "doing its best to associate Harlow with Cambridge"

I think those have gone now --- maybe someone pointed out to them that it meant "about halfway between two places you *have* heard of, although not quite on the straight line between them".

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "doing its best to associate Harlow with Cambridge"

I had a wonderful association with a girl from Harlow when I was at Cambridge.

[Fr. Ted Crilly]

Pretentious, Moi?

'Cambridge to London UK innovation corridor'

M11 to everyone else....

or even less exciting A10...

[werdsmith]

Re: Pretentious, Moi?

The A10 has a Porsche and Aston Martin showroom very close to a Ducati dealers at Harston. I keep being tempted to visit and see how long it takes them to ask me to leave. That's as exciting as it gets. Or maybe the Foxton level crossing.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Pretentious, Moi?

Do Porsche still make tanks?

[Tom 7]

Re: Pretentious, Moi?

Harlow had a Cobra replica shop Dax* I could see from my office at one time. I used to enjoy watching the new owners roaring out in their new toys and seeing the toys return a few hours later on a flatbed. I think my record was 3 spinning out on roundabouts in a day.

*seems they've move to N.Weald - I wonder if they do some training on the old airport there!

[Vometia has insomnia. Again.]

Re: Pretentious, Moi?

I remember trying to make the A10 "more interesting" during some boring commutes when I was young(er) and stupid(er). My analysis of those experiences is that I don't really recommend it; the A10 is fundamentally dull and life's too short, so it's best to avoid making it shorter as I seemed determined to accomplish. "But I'm 22 and indestructible!" etc, as was the case; God was it really nearly 30 years ago? D:

Still, I'll take "yikes, who put that roundabout there?!" over someone calling it the "Innovation Corridor". Hate, etc.

[Tom 7]

Re: Pretentious, Moi?

I love the bit on the A10 where the signs are to Cold Christmas. Just love that name.

[Colin Bull 1]

Cold Christmas

Wasnt there a pop group of some kind that was based at Cold Christmas? And is the Sow and Pigs still going?

[Vometia has insomnia. Again.]

Re: Pretentious, Moi?

Cold Christmas is just a bit to the south-east of Nasty, from what I recall. Some of the villages around there have quite interesting names: Ugley is also nearby, and just the other side of Harlow is the frankly bizarre Shellow Bowells.

[karlkarl]

I think anything like this is great. It feels like England barely does science or engineering these days. Instead we just sell crappy smart phones to each other and spend time monetising trivial crap ;)

However, from the photo. It certainly looks... British. Not exactly sleek like a sports car! But still cool nonetheless.

[Dunstan Vavasour]

Trouble is that with the long supply chains in almost every industry, no country feels as if it does science and engineering. But a fair proportion of the worlds airliners have engines made in Derby, most of the FIA motor racing teams are based here, and we devised a cheap and cheerful COVID vaccine for the world.

[MOV r0,r0]

All the country has done recently in sequencing and vaccines and the long history of discovery and application with early successes such as nabbing Colin Pitchfork, and you "feel" the country has no science base?

If I could recommend one thing to you at this point it would be to consume less BBC. Seriously - you'll be happier and feel better about the UK.

[Swordfish1]

Has it got a TPM 4.0 chip :)

[Il'Geller]

“The challenge is how to make sure it can translate into an unbiased, equitable model, and to do that, especially in healthcare, you need access to a huge amount of data which are representative of your population.”

Indeed, medical data must be impartial, bias level must be minimal. That is, each word in a medical document must have its only and well-defined meaning. This can be achieved by comparing multiple definitions of a given word (taken from a dictionary) with the context in which this word is located; which requires incredibly huge resources.

[Psamathos]

A 48-year-old design?

I seem to recall Sinclair already produced a "Cambridge 1" back in 1973. It certainly had an excellent price-performance ratio back them but I'd hardly call it a supercomputer; hopefully NVIDIA have updated it somewhat.

http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/cambridge_models.html

[Howard Sway]

Britain's most powerful computer?

Is it really true? Has Cambridge finally overtaken "Bournemouth"?

[elsergiovolador]

Stitch up

Now given this article, the whole story about NHS data grab sounds like a stitch up.

They want to take our sensitive data to take it "for a spin" on their shiny machine.

Who is going to own the results?

What happens if someone sticks an USB drive in and creates accidental backup for foreign corporations and governments?

[hoola]

Re: Stitch up

It will be connected to something with Internet access somewhere, no USB key required,

[MikeLivingstone]

$40m on a render farm

No one this system was intended for is using it properly.

I am at one of the originally named pharmas and we aren't allowed to use the system due having secure data requirements. I've only seen one output which seems to look like render jobs, $40m is a lot for a graphics card!