Month: August 2024

NVIDIA to Present Innovations at Hot Chips That Boost Data Center Performance and Energy Efficiency

Posted on by faz_business


A deep technology conference for processor and system architects from industry and academia has become a key forum for the trillion-dollar data center computing market.

At Hot Chips 2024 next week, senior NVIDIA engineers will present the latest advancements powering the NVIDIA Blackwell platform, plus research on liquid cooling for data centers and AI agents for chip design.

They’ll share how:

  • NVIDIA Blackwell brings together multiple chips, systems and NVIDIA CUDA software to power the next generation of AI across use cases, industries and countries.
  • NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 — a multi-node, liquid-cooled, rack-scale solution that connects 72 Blackwell GPUs and 36 Grace CPUs — raises the bar for AI system design.
  • NVLink interconnect technology provides all-to-all GPU communication, enabling record high throughput and low-latency inference for generative AI.
  • The NVIDIA Quasar Quantization System pushes the limits of physics to accelerate AI computing.
  • NVIDIA researchers are building AI models that help build processors for AI.

An NVIDIA Blackwell talk, taking place Monday, Aug. 26, will also spotlight new architectural details and examples of generative AI models running on Blackwell silicon.

It’s preceded by three tutorials on Sunday, Aug. 25, that will cover how hybrid liquid-cooling solutions can help data centers transition to more energy-efficient infrastructure and how AI models, including large language model (LLM)-powered agents, can help engineers design the next generation of processors.

Together, these presentations showcase the ways NVIDIA engineers are innovating across every area of data center computing and design to deliver unprecedented performance, efficiency and optimization.

Be Ready for Blackwell

NVIDIA Blackwell is the ultimate full-stack computing challenge. It comprises multiple NVIDIA chips, including the Blackwell GPU, Grace CPU, BlueField data processing unit, ConnectX network interface card, NVLink Switch, Spectrum Ethernet switch and Quantum InfiniBand switch.

Ajay Tirumala and Raymond Wong, directors of architecture at NVIDIA, will provide a first look at the platform and explain how these technologies work together to deliver a new standard for AI and accelerated computing performance while advancing energy efficiency.

The multi-node NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 solution is a perfect example. LLM inference requires low-latency, high-throughput token generation. GB200 NVL72 acts as a unified system to deliver up to 30x faster inference for LLM workloads, unlocking the ability to run trillion-parameter models in real time.

Tirumala and Wong will also discuss how the NVIDIA Quasar Quantization System — which brings together algorithmic innovations, NVIDIA software libraries and tools, and Blackwell’s second-generation Transformer Engine — supports high accuracy on low-precision models, highlighting examples using LLMs and visual generative AI.

Keeping Data Centers Cool

The traditional hum of air-cooled data centers may become a relic of the past as researchers develop more efficient and sustainable solutions that use hybrid cooling, a combination of air and liquid cooling.

Liquid-cooling techniques move heat away from systems more efficiently than air, making it easier for computing systems to stay cool even while processing large workloads. The equipment for liquid cooling also takes up less space and consumes less power than air-cooling systems, allowing data centers to add more server racks — and therefore more compute power — in their facilities.

Ali Heydari, director of data center cooling and infrastructure at NVIDIA, will present several designs for hybrid-cooled data centers.

Some designs retrofit existing air-cooled data centers with liquid-cooling units, offering a quick and easy solution to add liquid-cooling capabilities to existing racks. Other designs require the installation of piping for direct-to-chip liquid cooling using cooling distribution units or by entirely submerging servers in immersion cooling tanks. Although these options demand a larger upfront investment, they lead to substantial savings in both energy consumption and operational costs.

Heydari will also share his team’s work as part of COOLERCHIPS, a U.S. Department of Energy program to develop advanced data center cooling technologies. As part of the project, the team is using the NVIDIA Omniverse platform to create physics-informed digital twins that will help them model energy consumption and cooling efficiency to optimize their data center designs.

AI Agents Chip In for Processor Design

Semiconductor design is a mammoth challenge at microscopic scale. Engineers developing cutting-edge processors work to fit as much computing power as they can onto a piece of silicon a few inches across, testing the limits of what’s physically possible.

AI models are supporting their work by improving design quality and productivity, boosting the efficiency of manual processes and automating some time-consuming tasks. The models include prediction and optimization tools to help engineers rapidly analyze and improve designs, as well as LLMs that can assist engineers with answering questions, generating code, debugging design problems and more.

Mark Ren, director of design automation research at NVIDIA, will provide an overview of these models and their uses in a tutorial. In a second session, he’ll focus on agent-based AI systems for chip design.

AI agents powered by LLMs can be directed to complete tasks autonomously, unlocking broad applications across industries. In microprocessor design, NVIDIA researchers are developing agent-based systems that can reason and take action using customized circuit design tools, interact with experienced designers, and learn from a database of human and agent experiences.

NVIDIA experts aren’t just building this technology — they’re using it. Ren will share examples of how engineers can use AI agents for timing report analysis, cell cluster optimization processes and code generation. The cell cluster optimization work recently won best paper at the first IEEE International Workshop on LLM-Aided Design.

Register for Hot Chips, taking place Aug. 25-27, at Stanford University and online.

Problem restoring resx file values after updating Visual Studio to Version 17.11.1

Posted on by faz_business


After updating Visual Studio to Version 17.11.1 (and 17.11.0), resx files only return Neutral value and not other languages.

I have two different assemblies for resx files, one is general and the other is specific to a specific project (each of which has different resx files in Farsi and English languages)
vs2022

These codes were working properly before the update, but now they have a problem and only return English, which is the main language.

Program.cs:

builder. Services.AddLocalization(o => o.ResourcesPath = Path.Combine("Resources", "Common"));
builder. Services.AddLocalization(o => o.ResourcesPath = Path.Combine( "1.Core", "ContentService", "Resources"));

app. UseRequestLocalization(options =>
{
    var supportedCultures = new[] { "fa-IR", "en-US" };
    options. SetDefaultCulture(supportedCultures[0])
        . AddSupportedCultures(supportedCultures)
        . AddSupportedUICultures(supportedCultures)
        . ApplyCurrentCultureToResponseHeaders = true;
});

For testing, I also got help from the fluent validation library that I have used for errors in my project, but it only returns Persian language even when I set the Content-Language value to en-US to header request. This library was working properly before the update.

It was working properly before I updated but not now, does anyone know how to fix the problem or has anyone encountered this problem after the update?

Threads is testing disappearing posts that expire after 24 hours

Posted on by faz_business


Threads is testing the option for users to put a 24-hour expiration timer on their posts, after which the post and all replies would disappear, Stories-style. A spokesperson confirmed to that the feature is being tested among a group of users after it was first spotted earlier this summer by developer . It sounds a lot like pre-X Twitter’s Fleets, . But, the ephemeral format could save habitual post-deleters some trouble.

It comes a few months after Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared that Threads was . That optional feature would let users designate a date for their posts to be hidden from the feed. But Threads users in the past have indicated that they of automatic archiving, and such a feature hasn’t yet shown up on a wider scale. Threads at the beginning of August, and recently introduced an for users — particularly those with large followings — to keep track of their account’s performance. Meta also said the option to schedule posts is on the way.

Wordle today: Answer and hint #1163 for August 25

Posted on by faz_business


Whether you’re after a few quick Wordle tips, a more in-depth clue, or just need to find out exactly what Sunday’s winning word is, you’re in the right place. Make sure you get your August 25 (1163) Wordle off to the very best start with our freshly crafted hint, or if you’d rather guarantee yourself a win, click through to today’s answer. Easy.

Oh wow, a win in two. I knew my opening guess was a good word to use, but I didn’t think it was going to be that helpful. Well, that’s me done for the day. Now what? What do people do when they’re not playing Wordle? 

Wordle today: A hint

(Image credit: Josh Wardle)

Wordle today: A hint for Sunday, August 25

This $10 bundle is incredible value on 7 modern detective games

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A new bundle over on Humble Bundle has me gobmsacked for the sheer value on display for a minimum of $10: The Humble Detectives Bundle is a cornucopia of delightful games about detectives and mysteries and killers from the last few years.

The bundle’s made up of film-world-focused mystery Immortality, serial killer thriller Killer Frequency, a fantastical world of dark secrets in Paradise Killer, cosmic horror in Call of Cthulhu, a double-dose of pixel jokes in The Darkside Detective and its sequel A Fumble in the Dark, and a whodunnit where you did it in Overboard.

How Hot Is the Sun? Our Solar System’s Fiery Star, Explained

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Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI team; Data processing: E. Kraaikamp (ROB)

As tempting as it is to cite one, no single number can describe the temperature of the whole Sun. Its layers are at different temperatures because they’re doing very different things. The Sun is a gigantic dynamo powered by hydrogen fusion within its plasma core. At pressures in the trillions of pounds per square inch, the Sun’s core averages about 15 million Kelvin (15 million Celsius, 27 million Fahrenheit). It’s tough to describe temperatures like these in relatable terms because they’re so far outside everything humans experience. The core of a star reaches temperatures—energy levels, really—we don’t see anywhere else outside fusion reactors.

The visible surface layer of the Sun, called the photosphere, is a toasty 5,800 Kelvin (about 5,600 Celsius, or 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit). But the average temperature of the Sun’s corona is up to 300,000 K, and it can reach temperatures in the millions of degrees during high-energy solar flares.

The sun and its atmosphere consist of several zones, or layers, from the inner core to the outer corona. Beyond the corona is the solar wind, which is an outward expansion of coronal plasma that extends well beyond the orbit of Pluto. This entire region of space influenced by the sun is called the heliosphere.


Credit: NASA/Sally Bensusen

Despite being so hot, the corona is less than a millionth as bright as the Sun. As you walk away from a bonfire, you feel less of its heat because you receive less energy due to the inverse square law. Why is the more distant corona so much hotter than parts of the Sun closer to its core? We simply don’t know yet—but that’s one of the questions that NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe to answer.

How Do We Study the Sun?

Mostly, the Earth’s atmosphere blocks out photons with a shorter wavelength than ultraviolet light. This makes it difficult to study the Sun’s inner workings from Earth directly. However, we do have our ways. Many ground-based telescopes use a grid of sensors also known as a charge-coupled device, or CCD. Some space telescopes use a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) active-pixel sensor, such as the WISPR imager on the Parker Solar Probe. These sensitive instruments can detect photons from the infrared to gamma rays because of how photons interact with the electrons in the sensors. (CCDs also power many consumer digital cameras.)

Compared with the brilliant force of sunlight, the light from the Sun’s corona is almost imperceptible. Like lens flare in a digital photo, ultra-bright light from a star can wash out the light from elsewhere in frame, such as its corona. Some coronagraphs have a round, opaque dot in the middle of their observing aperture. The dot obscures the body of a star, much like an annular eclipse, allowing scientists to observe its much fainter corona. (For a long time, solar eclipses were our best chance at observing the corona.) Another type, called a vortex coronagraph, uses the shape of the observing lens to physically redirect stray light into an “optical vortex” of destructive interference.

Trace elements in the Sun contribute their own spectral characteristics to the light produced by the Sun’s fusion engine. The presence of certain elements, such as the wildly over-ionized iron (Fe¹³+) in our Sun’s atmosphere, also tells us about what the Sun’s temperature must be.

Solar Observatories

The Sun’s influence extends well beyond the orbit of its planets, so we launched spacecraft like the Voyager 1 and 2 probes and NASA’s various solar orbiters to study the Sun’s effects on the rest of the solar system. Voyagers 1 and 2 are on a one-way trip, sent forth to study the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. In 2012, Voyager 1 started sending home readings indicating that it had reached the heliopause, the region of magnetic turbulence where the solar wind starts to slow down and trail off. Voyager 2 crossed into interstellar space on Nov. 5, 2018.

Meanwhile, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and its STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) satellites are in orbit around Earth. These spacecraft use magnetometers, electrical antennae, prismatic spectrometers, and instruments designed to sample the relatively cool plasma of the solar wind.

Resolution capabilities of the STEREO A/B and SDO spacecraft, compared to their predecessor, SOHO.

The STEREO A/B and SDO spacecraft both enjoy significantly improved resolution, compared to their predecessor, SOHO.
Credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory

Launched in 2010, the Solar Dynamics Observatory is a mission to study the aspects of the Sun that directly affect our life on Earth: solar wind, solar flares, and other outbursts of energy. STEREO, for its part, is a pair of satellites that gave us stereo vision of the sun in the same way that stereoscopic cameras let us film movies in native 3D. In 2011, their orbital separation allowed us to see the entire Sun at the same time, for the first time ever.

NASA also collaborated with the European Space Agency to develop the ESA’s Solar Orbiter (SolO), which studies the Sun from close enough to make Icarus jealous. In 2022, SolO delivered to us the highest-resolution image of the Sun’s corona ever taken.

What’s Next

Researchers haven’t let go of the coronal heating problem. Happily, there are more solar observatories than ever, and most are synchronized to the same atomic clock. This means we have multispectral, timestamped images and readings for the Sun through multiple solar cycles: solar flares, coronal holes, and all. Whether it’s magnetic tension, micro-flares from the convection granules filling the photosphere, or something else entirely, heliophysicists are determined to determine why the corona is such a spicy meatball.

Machine learning stands to play a role in future heliophysics. Cooperation in solar research between NASA and other public and private institutions has also created a huge body of open data accessible to anyone who wants to explore it.

But the real vanguard in solar science might be one of the satellites itself. SolO’s orbital radius drops to 0.284 astronomical units (AU), only about sixty solar radii, bringing it within the orbital perihelion of Mercury. One of its chief scientific objectives is investigating the connection between solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. Another: photographing the Sun’s poles, heretofore unobserved. Icarus would be jealous indeed.

Dog Boarding Business Safety: Preventing and Addressing Bite Claims

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Home Business Magazine Online

The pet industry is booming, and pet startups are jumping on that demand. In fact, the market is now worth a whopping USD$ 320 billion, showing just how much people love their pets and are willing to splurge on them. Among the services people patronize is dog boarding.

Now, despite how lucrative this business may seem, running one is no piece of cake. As an owner, you know that keeping your furry guests safe and happy is job number one. Unfortunately, things can go sideways, and bite incidents occur. This can be upsetting for everyone involved, especially for dog owners. This also carries significant legal and financial risks for your business.

That’s why you must have an action plan for preventing and effectively addressing bite claims at your facility. Here’s how you can do that:

Preventing Bites

Ensuring the safety and well-being of the canine guests entrusted to your dog boarding business is a top priority. You can implement that by doing the following:

Thorough Screening

It’s really important to screen all dogs carefully before they come to our boarding facility. You need to assess their personality, review their behavior history, and look for any signs of aggression. This will help you determine if they’re a good fit for your facility.

Staff Training   

Want a team that can handle any furry situation? Make sure everyone knows the ins and outs of dog behavior. From recognizing aggression to calming things down, training your staff is like having insurance against trouble. Not only does it keep your dogs safe, but it also gives your customers peace of mind.

Secure Facilities

A strong fence and a locked gate are like fortresses for your furry friends. They keep your dogs from wandering off or getting into trouble with others. A safe space is a happy space, and it shows your customers you mean business when it comes to safety.

Supervision and Monitoring

Keep a close eye on the dogs at all times! Your staff should be on the lookout for any signs of trouble and step in before things get out of hand. It’s like having a personal guardian for your furry guests, and it shows your customers that you really care about their pets.

Separate Accommodations

It’s also important to keep dogs in separate areas based on their size, age, temperament, and any aggression issues. This can really help prevent fights. Keep the troublemakers away from the others. By separating dogs that might not get along, you’re creating a safer environment for everyone.

Addressing Bite Claims

Despite all the prevention measures in place, in the worst-case scenario, you may be facing dog bite liability. Now, this may involve some legal proceedings with the help of dog bite lawyers, but it doesn’t mean they’ll do all the work for you. Here’s what you can do:

Incident Documentation     

When a bite incident occurs at your dog boarding facility, thoroughly documenting the details is an essential step. Carefully record the circumstances surrounding the event, the identities of the dogs involved, any resulting injuries, and the actions taken by your staff, you create a comprehensive record that can prove invaluable should legal actions arise.

Veterinary Assessment

After any bite incident, you must act urgently and bring all the dogs involved to the vet for examination. This serves two purposes. First, it ensures that any injuries are properly treated. Second, it provides a professional assessment of whether the dog poses an ongoing risk.

The vet’s report becomes part of your incident documentation and can guide your decisions about the dog’s future stays at your facility.

Bite Claims

Owner Communication      

It’s important to provide a full detail of the bite incident, this includes:

  • what happened
  • what your team did
  • what needs to be done for future boarding

Nobody likes to deliver bad news. But when you’re upfront with pet owners, it shows you genuinely care about their furry family members. If they’ve got questions or worries, don’t dodge them—tackle them head-on. This approach can work wonders in calming frazzled nerves and proving that you’re all in when it comes to keeping their four-legged friends safe and sound.

Review and Update Policies

Every incident, no matter how small, is an opportunity to improve. After addressing the immediate concerns, take some time to review what happened. Ask yourself and your team:

  • Could this incident have been prevented?
  • Were there any warning signs we missed?
  • Do our current policies and procedures need updating?

Use these insights to strengthen your safety measures. This might involve additional staff training, changes to your facility layout, or updates to your screening process.

Legal Compliance     

It’s important to understand and follow all local laws about dog bites. This means:

  • Know your reporting requirements. Some areas require you to report all bite incidents, even minor ones.
  • Understand your liability. Laws vary, but you could be held responsible for bites that happen in your facility.
  • Stay up-to-date on any changes in local pet care regulations.
  • Consider consulting a lawyer who specializes in animal-related businesses to review your policies and procedures.

By following the rules, you’re not just covering your back legally. You’re also showing clients that you take their pets’ safety seriously.

Insurance Coverage    

Finally, make sure your business has appropriate liability insurance. This can provide crucial financial protection if a bite claim leads to a lawsuit.

Review your policy regularly to ensure it provides adequate coverage for your specific needs. As your business grows or changes, your insurance needs might change too.

Final Thoughts     

Handling a dog boarding business necessitates the safety and well-being of your furry guests and is a profound responsibility that requires a comprehensive approach. With prevention measures in place and being prepared for claims, you can protect your dogs, your business, and your reputation. This will help you attract and keep loyal customers.

The post Dog Boarding Business Safety: Preventing and Addressing Bite Claims appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Buy a Microsoft Office for Windows license for $40 with this deal

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zd-microsoft-office.jpg

Download a lifetime license to Microsoft Office at a deep discount with this deal.

Stack Social

If you need access to Microsoft Office but don’t want to pay the yearly fee to access Office 365, you’re in luck: Stack Social is offering a lifetime license for Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows or Mac, starting at $45 (reg. $220) — that’s 79% off. Pay just once, and get lifetime access to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher, and Access, no matter what kind of device you’re using.

This deal gets you a one-time purchase to be installed on one device. You’ll need Windows 10 or 11, or MacOS Monterey, Ventura, or Sonoma to download the software.

A caveat: While Stack Social is an authorized Microsoft partner and offers “lifetime” access to Office, it is possible that Microsoft could end the license. But the site has been running these Microsoft deals for years, and I can personally vouch for them — I purchased an Office license from Stack Social about two years ago, and it’s still working on my personal MacBook today. 

This deal won’t give you the benefits of the latest Microsoft Office 365 subscription, either — but you won’t have to pay a $70 yearly fee to access Office apps, either. Windows users must have their OS updated to Windows 10 or 11, while Mac users should have at least Monterrey Version 12 or newer to download the software. 

Get Microsoft Office Professional for Windows or Mac with this deal today.

Deals are subject to sell-out or expire at any time, though ZDNET remains committed to finding, sharing, and updating the best product deals for you to score the best savings. Our team of experts regularly checks in on the deals we share to ensure they are still live and obtainable. We’re sorry if you’ve missed out on this deal, but don’t fret — we’re constantly finding new chances to score savings and sharing them with you at ZDNET.com. 



Starliner astronauts will come home in February on a SpaceX Crew Dragon

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After more than two months of tests and discussions, NASA has decided that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will come home in February 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon, and the Boeing Starliner they flew to the International Space Station on in June will return uncrewed. In a press conference on Saturday, Steve Stich, manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said “there was too much uncertainty” around the predictions for Starliner’s thrusters to move forward with a crewed return flight.

The plan now is that Starliner’s first crew will return with SpaceX’s Crew-9, which is scheduled to launch to the ISS at the end of September. Crew-9 was initially supposed to carry four crew members, but will instead have to go ahead with two, so as to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the way back. That spacecraft is being reconfigured with seats for the two astronauts, and Dragon spacesuits will be added to its cargo for them to wear home. By the time Wilmore and Williams depart, the duo will have been on the space station for about eight months. The Starliner flight test was only supposed to last a little over a week.

The next step is to get Starliner ready for undocking and wrap up as an uncrewed flight test. The agency plans to conduct the second part of its readiness review for the process this coming week, and expects undocking to take place around early next month. “We are changing the separation sequence that we planned and we will review those aspects at the readiness review,” Stich said. “We’re going to go with a simplified separation technique to get away from the station a little more quickly.”

The issue with Starliner’s thrusters has been “very complex,” Stich said, and their performance has been “challenging to predict.” Without being able to accurately predict how the thrusters would perform from undocking through the deorbit burn, the potential risks for the astronauts were just too high, he explained.

“We have had mistakes in the past,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “We have lost two space shuttles as a result of there not being a culture in which information can come forward.” With that context looming over the discussions, he said, “We have been very solicitous of all of our employees that if you have some objection, you come forward. Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and and its most routine, and a test flight by its nature is neither safe nor routine. And so the decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is the result of a commitment to safety.”

OWC Express 1M2: Great All-Around External SSD

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In his detailed review for MacWorld, Thomas Bergbold showcases the OWC Express 1M2 external SSD, emphasizing its standout cooling-fin design that plays a crucial role in maintaining optimal performance. This external SSD, known for its efficient cooling, is essential for handling high-speed NVMe SSDs, ensuring reliable performance during extended use. The durable aluminum housing of the OWC Express 1M2 not only adds to its robustness but also makes it versatile for both desktop and portable use, with anti-slip rubber surfaces to prevent any movement or scratches on surfaces.

Despite its short connection cable, the OWC Express 1M2 shines in speed and performance tests. Bergbold’s testing, using tools like Aja System Test Lite and Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test, revealed impressive data transfer rates, with read speeds exceeding 3000MBps. The SSD’s speed remained consistent even during prolonged testing, highlighting its reliability. The OWC Express 1M2’s high read speeds were verified on both M3 MacBook Air and Mac Studio, proving it to be a top-tier choice for those seeking fast and reliable external storage.

Overall, Thomas Bergbold concludes that the OWC Express 1M2 is an excellent choice for those looking for an external SSD with a superior price-performance ratio. With its high data transfer rates, advanced thermal management, and compatibility with future NVMe SSD upgrades, it stands out as a future-proof storage solution. Additionally, OWC offers a three-year warranty on fully configured models and a two-year warranty on empty cases, making the OWC Express 1M2 a reliable investment for Mac users seeking top performance and durability.

Read the full review by Thomas Bergbold for MacWorld HERE