Specialized

computer hardware Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the computer case, case, central processing unit (CPU), Random-access memory, random access memory (RAM), Computer monitor, monitor, Computer mouse, mouse, Computer keyboard, ...

is often used to execute

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

(AI) programs faster, and with less energy, such as Lisp machines, neuromorphic engineering,

event camera An event camera, also known as a neuromorphic camera, silicon retina or dynamic vision sensor, is an imaging sensor that responds to local changes in brightness. Event cameras do not capture images using a shutter as conventional (frame) camera ...

s, and physical neural networks.

Lisp machines

Lisp machines were developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s to make AI programs written in the programming language

Lisp A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech. Types * A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping ...

run faster.

Neural network hardware

Physical neural networks

Dataflow architecture

Dataflow architecture processors used for AI serve various purposes, with varied implementations like the polymorphic dataflow Convolution Engine by Kinara (formerly Deep Vision), structure-driven dataflow by Hailo, and dataflow scheduling by

Cerebras Cerebras Systems is an American artificial intelligence company with offices in Sunnyvale and San Diego, Toronto, Tokyo and Bangalore, India. Cerebras builds computer systems for complex artificial intelligence deep learning applications. Histo ...

Component hardware

AI accelerators

Since the 2010s, advances in computer hardware have led to more efficient methods for training deep neural networks that contain many layers of non-linear hidden units and a very large output layer. By 2019,

graphics processing unit A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

s (GPUs), often with AI-specific enhancements, had displaced

central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, an ...

(CPUs) as the dominant means to train large-scale commercial cloud AI. OpenAI estimated the hardware compute used in the largest deep learning projects from AlexNet (2012) to AlphaZero (2017), and found a 300,000-fold increase in the amount of compute needed, with a doubling-time trend of 3.4 months.

Sources

{{Compu-hardware-stub Computer hardware Artificial intelligence