Cloud Hosting

PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 25: In this photo illustration, a visual representation of the digital ... [+] Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is displayed in front of the Bitcoin course's graph on June 25, 2019 in Paris, France.

Everyone was stunned when the new mayor of New York City Eric Adams announced he was planning to receive his first three paychecks in Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency thats been dominating the financial headlines for the past year. The mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, had already announced he would accept his first paycheck 100% in Bitcoin.

The mayoral announcements are still more signs that cryptocurrencies are no longer esoteric investments for the super-rich (or super-crooks) but have entered the financial mainstream.Back in May Deutsche Bank pronounced Bitcoin the third biggest world currency in terms of circulation. Only the euro and the U.S. dollar are bigger.

Mayor Adams himself says he intends to make New York City the center of the cryptocurrency industry.

Of course, the history of markets teaches us that what goes up must eventually come downespecially a commodity like crypto, whose rise has been fueled as much by media hype as by financial realities. Whether the current crypto boom turns out to be a crypto bubble, is impossible to say. What Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies do have going for them are two virtues.

The first is that they are not state-denominated currencies, whose heads around the world have turned out to be inept or corrupt or both.

The other is cryptocurrencys reliance on blockchain, or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), to protect and authenticate its transactions.The on-going ledger of cryptocurrency transactions is never stored in any single location, which means no centralized version exists for a hacker to corrupt.Since the data is hosted by millions of computers simultaneously, its accessible to anyone on the internet. But its also protected because after every transaction within the shared ledger; and once all the ledgers match for every computer in the network; the transaction is encrypted with the rest in whats known as a block. The new block is then added to existing previous blocks to form a chain of blockshence the term blockchain.

All in all, blockchain is a built-in security system that prohibits a hacker or attacker from forcing open the distributed ledger without everyone knowing it.

As tech guru George Gilder argues in his book, Life After Google, using blockchain to share but also protect data poses a greater threat to Big Tech dominance of the internet than any government regulation or legislationjust as cryptocurrencies pose a useful challenge to the elites who control our state-denominated currencies.

But as always theres a catch. Blockchain is an adequate safeguard against existing cyber threats, but not against the future one posed by large-scale quantum computers.

As I mentioned in a previous column, blockchains encryption is based on Elliptical Curve Cryptography, which will be vulnerable to factorization by quantum computers that can decrypt the complex algorithms used by asymmetric encryption systems to secure almost all electronic data, including blockchain.The quantum attacker will simply look like another member of the shared ledger, in a cyber assault that will be undetectable and persistent.

CHICAGO, IL - DECEMBER 19: Traders trade VIX contracts at the Cboe Global Markets exchange ... [+] (previously referred to as CBOE Holdings, Inc.) on December 19, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. Last week the exchange became the first in the Unites States to begin trading Bitcoin futures. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

How vulnerable will cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin be?

Consider: in 2020 the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was $330 billion. Today it is approaching $2 trillion. Institutional investors account for 63% of trading in cryptos, compared to just 10% in 2017, which means a collapse of crypto value is bound to ripple through balance sheets all around Wall Street-and around the world.

Our most recent study conducted here at the Quantum Alliance Initiative done in conjunction with the econometric firm Oxford Economics indicates that a quantum attack on crypto precipitating a 99.2% collapse of value, would inflict $1.865 Trillion in immediate losses to owners, with nearly $1.5 trillion in indirect losses to the whole economy due to that collapse.

All in all, we are looking at a $3.3 trillion blow to the U.S. economy.

Thats a calculation based on cryptos current value. By the time a large-scale quantum computer emerges, by 2030 or so, cryptocurrencies will be even more imbedded in the global financial systemand the losses even greater.

Fortunately, theres a solution. The most immediate is post-quantum cryptography, i.e., deploying algorithm-based encryption that is impenetrable to future quantum attack but also to classical attack right now. Crypto exchanges have already drawn highly damaging attacks, like the one in 2018 on Bithumb, the South Korean crypto-currency exchange, which cost $30 million, or the assault on Poly Network this past August in which cyber thieves stole more than $600 million.

BEIJING, Dec. 4, 2020 A research team including renowned Chinese quantum physicist Pan Jianwei on ... [+] Dec. 4, 2020 announced a significant computing breakthrough, achieving quantum computational advantage. (Photo by An Zhiping/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/An Zhiping via Getty Images)

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) is working on standards for post-quantum cryptography for rollout starting in 2024, but there is no reason to wait.Companies in the USA and Canada can offer solutions now, including hybrid solutions that offer the best of both post-quantum and quantum-based technologieswhile others are creating versions of DLT that incorporates quantum solutions from the start.

Make no mistake; regardless of Bitcoin and Ethereums ups and downs in the current marketseven if a Bitcoin bubble burstscrypto currencies are here to stay.Quantum-safe solutions can make sure they are stable and secure for a long time to come.

Continued here:
Will Quantum Computers Burst The Bitcoin Boom? - Forbes

LEESBURG, Va., Nov. 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI) (Nasdaq: QUBT), a leader in bridging the power of classical and quantum computing, has been invited to present at the ROTH 10th Annual Technology Event being held virtually on November 17-18.

QCI CEO Robert Liscouski is scheduled to present and participate in one-on-one meetings with institutional analysts and investors at the conference. He will be joined by the companys CFO, Chris Roberts.

Management will discuss the companys flagship Qatalyst ready-to-run quantum software and how it allows businesses to affordably solve mission-critical problems with quantum-enhanced classical computing, from supply chain, logistics, and transportation to drug discovery, cybersecurity and more.

Qatalyst is the first software to bridge the power of classical and quantum computing. It has accelerated the value of quantum computing for real-world business solutions by minimizing complexity and empowering subject matter experts (SMEs) to solve complex computational problems. Qatalyst launched earlier this year as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) on AWS.

This conference presents a great opportunity to discuss Qatalysts commercial applications and ability to solve challenging business problems, stated Liscouski. As the only public pure-play quantum software company, QCI is well positioned to be a key player in the quantum space, given the unique power of Qatalyst and how its now easily accessible via AWS.

Demonstrating the strengthening trends in quantum computing and AWS commitment to the space, last week Amazon announced the opening of the AWS Center for Quantum Computing in Pasadena, California, where it plans to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer. QCI anticipates it will be accessible via AWS Braket quantum computing services and easily programmable via Qatalyst SaaS.

You can learn more about Qatalyst on AWS by listening to the podcast hosted by Provitit here, which featured guest speakers Richard Moulds, general manager of Amazon Braket, AWS, and Liscouski.

To schedule a one-on-one meeting with QCI at ROTH, you may submit your request online via the link provided upon registration. For more information about the event or questions about registration, please contact your ROTH representative.

For any questions aboutQCI, please contactRon Bothof CMA at (949) 432-7557 or submit your requesthere.

About Quantum Computing Inc.Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI) (Nasdaq: QUBT) is focused on accelerating the value of quantum computing for real-world business solutions. The companys flagship product, Qatalyst, is the first software to bridge the power of classical and quantum computing, minimizing complexity and empowering SMEs to solve complex computational problems today. QCIs expert team in finance, computing, security, mathematics and physics has over a century of experience with complex technologies; from leading edge supercomputing innovations, to massively parallel programming, to the security that protects nations. Connect with QCI on LinkedIn and @QciQuantum on Twitter. For more information about QCI, visit http://www.quantumcomputinginc.com.

Company Contact:Robert Liscouski, CEOQuantum Computing, Inc.+1 (703) 436-2161Email Contact

Investor Relations Contact:Ron Both or Justin LumleyCMA Investor Relations+1 (949) 432-7566Email Contact

Media Relations Contact:Bob GellerFusion Public Relations+1 (917) 816-0562qci@fusionpr.com

Here is the original post:
Quantum Computing Inc. to Present at the ROTH 10th Annual - GlobeNewswire

In a decade and a half, Nvidia has come a long way from its early days provider of graphics chips for personal computers and other consumer devices.

Jensen Huang, Nvidia co-founder and chief executive officer put his sights on the datacenter, pushing GPUs as a way of accelerating HPC applications and the CUDA software development environment as a way of making that happen. Five years later, Huang declared artificial intelligence as the future of computing and that Nvidia would not only enable that, but bet the company on this being the future of software development. That AI-enhanced everything would be, in fact, the next platform.

The company has continued to evolve, with Nvidia expanding its hardware and software capabilities aimed at meeting the demands of an ever-changing IT landscape that now includes multiple clouds and the fast-growing edge and, Huang expects, a virtual world of digital twins and avatars, and all of this is dependent on the companys technologies.

Nvidia has not been a a point product provider for some time, but is now a full-stack platform vendor for this new computing world.

Accelerated computing starts with Nvidia CUDA general-purpose programmable GPUs, Huang said during his keynote address at the companys virtual GTC 2021 event this week. The magic of accelerated computing comes from the combination of CUDA, the acceleration libraries of algorithms that speed-up applications and the distributed computing systems and software that scale processing across an entire data center.

Nvidia has been advancing CUDA and expanding the surrounding ecosystem for it for more than fifteen years.

We optimize across the full stack, iterating between GPU, acceleration libraries, systems, and applications continuously, all the while expanding the reach of our platform by adding new application domains that we accelerate, he said. With our approach, end users experience speedups through the life of the product. It is not unusual for us to increase application performance by many X-factors on the same chip over several years. As we accelerate more applications, our network of partners see growing demand for Nvidia platforms. Starting from computer graphics, the reach of our architecture has reached deep into the worlds largest industries. We start with amazing chips, but for each field of science, industry and application, we create a full stack.

To illustrate that, Huang pointed to the more than 150 software development kits that target a broad range of industries, from design to life sciences, and at GTC announced 65 new or updated SDKs touching on such areas as quantum computing, cybersecurity, and robotics. The number of developers using Nvidia technologies has grown to almost 3 million, increasing six-fold over the past five years. In addition, CUDA has been downloaded 30 million times over 15 years, including 7 million times last year.

Our expertise in full-stack acceleration and datacenter-scale architectures lets us help researchers and developers solve problems at the largest scales, he said. Our approach to computing is highly energy-efficient. The versatility of architecture lets us contribute to fields ranging from AI to quantum physics to digital biology to climate science.

That said, Nvidia is not without its challenges. The companys $40 billion bid for Arm is no sure thing, with regulators from the UK and Europe saying they want to take a deeper look at the possible market impacts the deal would create and Qualcomm leading opposition to the proposed acquisition. In addition, the competition in GPU-accelerated computing is heating up, with AMD advancing its capabilities we recently wrote about the companys Aldebaran Instinct MI200 GPU accelerator and Intel last week saying that it expects the upcoming Aurora supercomputer will scale beyond 2 exaflops due in large part to a better-than-expected performance by its Ponte Vecchio Xe HPC GPUs.

Still, Nvidia sees its future in creating the accelerated-computing foundation for the expansion of AI, machine learning and deep learning into a broad array of industries, as illustrated by the usual avalanche of announcements coming out of GTC. Among the new libraries was ReOpt, which is aimed finding the shortest and most efficient routes for getting products and services to their destinations, which can save companies time and money in last-mile delivery efforts.

CuQuantum is another library for creating quantum simulators to validate research in the field while the industry builds the first useful quantum computers. Nvidia has built a cuQuantum DGX appliance for speeding up quantum circuit simulations, with the first accelerated quantum simulator coming to Googles Cirq framework coming in the first quarter 2022. Meanwhile, cuNumeric is aimed at accelerating NumPy workloads, scaling from one GPU to multi-node clusters.

Nvidias new Quantum-2 interconnect (which has nothing to do with quantum computing) is a 400 Gb/sec InfiniBand platform that comprises the Quantum-2 switch, the ConnectX-7 SmartNIC, the BlueField 3 DPU, and features like performance isolation, a telemetry-based congestion-control system and 32X higher in-switch processing for AI training. In addition, nanosecond timing will enable cloud datacenters to get into the telco space by hosting software-defined 5G radio services.

Quantum-2 is the first networking platform to offer the performance of a supercomputer and the share-ability of cloud computing, Huang said. This has never been possible before. Until Quantum-2, you get either bare-metal high-performance or secure multi-tenancy. Never both. With Quantum-2, your valuable supercomputer will be cloud-native and far better utilized.

The 7 nanometer InfiniBand switch chip holds 57 billion transistors similar to Nvidias A100 GPU and has 64 ports running at 400 Gb/sec or 128 ports running at 200 Gb/sec. A Quantum-2 system can connect up to 2,048 ports, as compared to the 800 ports with Quantum-1. The switch is sampling now and comes with options for the ConnectX-7 SmartNIC sampling in January or BlueField 3 DPU, which will sample in May.

BlueField DOCA 1.2 is a suite of cybersecurity capabilities that Huang said will make BlueField an even more attractive platform for building a zero-trust architecture by offloading infrastructure software that is eating up as much as 30 percent of CPU capacity. In addition, Nvidias Morpheus deep-learning cybersecurity platform uses AI to monitor and analyze data from users, machines and services to detect anomalies and abnormal transactions.

Cloud computing and machine learning are driving a reinvention of the datacenter, Huang said. Container-based applications give hyperscalers incredible abilities to scale out, allowing millions to use their services concurrently. The ease of scale out and orchestration comes at a cost: east-west network traffic increased incredibly with machine-and-machine message passing and these disaggregated applications open many ports inside the datacenter that need to be secured from cyberattack.

Nvidia has bolstered its Triton Inferencing Server with new support for the Arm architecture; the system already supported Nvida GPUs and X86 chips from Intel and AMD. In addition, version 2.15 of Triton also can run multiple GPU and multi-node inference workloads, which Huang called arguably one of the most technically challenging runtime engines the world has ever seen.

As these models are growing exponentially, particularly in new use cases, theyre often getting too big for you to run on a single CPU or even a single server, Ian Buck, vice president and general manager of Nvidias Tesla datacenter business, said during a briefing with journalists. Yet the demands [and] the opportunities for these large models want to be delivered in real-time. The new version of Triton actually supports distributed inference. We take the model and we split it across multiple GPUs and multiple servers to deliver that to optimize the computing to deliver the fastest possible performance of these incredibly large models.

Nvidia also unveiled NeMo Megatron, a framework for training large language models (LLMs) that have trillions of parameters. NeMo Megatron can be used for such jobs as language translation and compute program writing, and it leverages the Triton Inference Server. Nvidia last month unveiled Megatron 530B, a language mode with 530 billion parameters.

The recent breakthrough of large language models is one of the great achievements in computer science, Huang said. Theres exciting work being done in self-supervised multi-modal learning and models that can do tasks that it was never trained on called zero-shot learning. Ten new models were announced last year alone. Training LLMs is not for the faint of heart. Hundred-million-dollar systems, training trillion-parameter models on petabytes of data for months requires conviction, deep expertise, and an optimized stack.

A lot of time at the event was spent on Nvidias Omniverse platform, the virtual environment introduced last year that the company believes will be a critical enterprise tool in the future. Skeptics point to avatars and the like in suggesting that Omniverse is little more than a second coming of Second Life. In responding to a question, Buck said there are two areas where Omniverse is catching on in the enterprise.

The first is digital twins, virtual representations of machines or systems that recreates an environment like the work were doing in embedded and robotics and other places to be able to simulate virtual worlds, actually simulate the products that are being built in a virtual environment and be able to prototype them entirely with Omniverse. A virtual setting allows the product development to happen in a way that has been before remotely, virtually around the world.

The other is in the commercial use of virtual agents this is where the AI-based avatars can come in to help with call centers and similar customer-facing tasks.

Excerpt from:
Nvidia Declares That It Is A Full-Stack Platform - The Next Platform