AMD is positioning GPUs from consumer video cards as viable components for building supercomputers and AI acceleration systems.

Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su showcased Project 47 at the SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles, demonstrating the company's push into high-performance computing. The system, housed in a rack slightly taller than the MIT-trained CEO herself, contained 20 of AMD's newest Epyc microprocessor chips alongside 80 graphics processing units based on the company's new Vega design and 10 terabytes of memory. This configuration delivered a supercomputer capable of performing 1 petaflop of calculations per second—a one followed by 15 zeros worth of calculations per second—at less than supercomputer pricing.

At a petaflop, Project 47 achieved performance equivalent to the fastest and priciest supercomputers in the world from 2009 and would rank just outside the top 100 today, demonstrating the rapid progress in chip design in recent years, particularly in graphics processors that have evolved beyond their origins in video games. The biggest cloud data center companies, including Amazon and Microsoft, are increasingly filling racks with GPUs as customers seek to run artificial intelligence and machine learning tasks that thrive on graphics processing architecture. While Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang has captured the bulk of the new cloud GPU market so far, AMD just started shipping its newest Vega graphics chips in volume in the third quarter, alongside its Epyc server CPU that started shipping earlier this year, both results of Su's years-long effort to remake AMD's product line with higher-performing, modern designs.

Su highlighted a key advantage: while Nvidia pitches GPUs and Intel sells CPUs, only AMD has leading products in both segments. Some cloud servers will use Epyc and Vega together, as in Project 47. "We see them separately and together of some systems," Su said. "It's a fast growing segment of the market, and we're very underrepresented in share, so we see that continuing to grow." Although Nvidia has a significant head start with popular proprietary software tools, Su remains optimistic that AMD can win substantial additional business in the data center.

In other technology news, Sprint and T-Mobile are moving closer to completing an all-stock merger within three weeks that would pay Sprint shareholders a modest premium over current stock price. Apple CEO Tim Cook offered little reassurance when asked about iPhone X supply shortage rumors, saying only "We'll see what happens," while reports suggested Apple may be easing facial recognition accuracy standards to reduce production delays. Cook also dismissed succession speculation: "I see my role as CEO to prepare as many people as I can to be CEO and that's what I'm doing." Amazon unveiled Amazon Key, a door lock and camera system allowing delivery personnel to enter homes to drop off packages. Twitter announced it would voluntarily label political and issue-related ads and disclose their funding sources as Congress discussed making social networks subject to the same political ad disclosure rules as TV and radio. A ransomware variant called Bad Rabbit spread across eastern Europe, with unknown hackers locking victims' data and demanding bitcoin ransoms. Hulu lost CEO Mike Hopkins, hired to run television efforts at Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Fox TV executive Randy Freer, who oversaw FX and National Geographic, taking over as his replacement.

Bloomberg's Tim Culpan examined Apple's iPhone X production challenges by analyzing figures disclosed by suppliers including Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor, finding seemingly troubling production shortfalls that raised questions about whether Apple has lost its former supply chain management excellence. Culpan concluded: "If this truly is a single-cycle mistake, then it's possible Apple will return to its former glory. If the problems are a result of hubris then it indicates to me that Apple has lost its mojo. With rival brands like Samsung and Huawei becoming increasingly adept at working with suppliers, Apple risks losing its hardware edge at a time when its iOS platform is also under fire. It simply can't afford to make such a mistake again."