Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
February 2025
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CCC Responds to NSF Request for Comment on Proposed Intellectual Property Options
In December 2024, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a Request for Comments (RFC) seeking public input to inform the adoption of new Intellectual Property (IP) provisions that the agency intends to use in future public…
From insideHPC
Applied Digital Closes $375M Financing with SMBC to Support HPC Campus
DALLAS, Feb. 12, 2025 — Applied Digital Corporation (Nasdaq: APLD), a builder of digital infrastructure for HPC applications, announced today that the company, through its HPC subsidiary APLD HPC Holdings LLC (“APLDH”), closed…
From insideHPC
Quantinuum Quantum Computer Now Operational at RIKEN
TOKYO, Feb. 11, 2025 — Quantinuum and Japan’s RIKEN research institution announced the on-premise installation of Quantinuum’s “Reimei” quantum computer at RIKEN’s Wako campus in Saitama, Japan. RIKEN said it has designed, prepared…
From insideHPC
Eaton Invests $340M in Transformer Manufacturing to Power Data Centers
CLEVELAND, Feb. 12, 2025 – Intelligent power management company Eaton (NYSE:ETN) is helping address the shortage of transformers and record demand for its solutions across data center, utility, large commercial and industrial…
From Computational Complexity
Research Then and Now
A student asked me if complexity research was easier when I was a student. Interesting question. Let's compare research now versus the late 80's.
The big advantage today is technology. Just a small sampling below.
Information:Online…From Schneier on Security
Delivering Malware Through Abandoned Amazon S3 Buckets
Here’s a supply-chain attack just waiting to happen. A group of researchers searched for, and then registered, abandoned Amazon S3 buckets for about $400. These buckets contained software libraries that are still used. Presumably…
From insideHPC
Why Tier 0 Is a Game-Changer for GPU Storage
In tech, you’re either forging new paths or stuck in traffic. Tier 0 doesn’t just clear the road — it builds the autobahn. It obliterates inefficiencies, crushes bottlenecks, and unleashes the true power of GPUs. The MLPerf1.0…
From insideHPC
Quantum: QuEra Completes $230M Financing from Google, SoftBank and Others
Boston – February 11, 2025 – QuEra Computing, a neutral-atom quantum computing, today announced it has successfully completed a financing of more than $230 million. The funds will be used to accelerate the development and production…
From Schneier on Security
Trusted Encryption Environments
Really good—and detailed—survey of Trusted Encryption Environments (TEEs.)
From insideHPC
Laser-Based LightSolver Partners With Ansys on CAE
TEL AVIV – February 11, 2025 – LightSolver, inventors of a new laser-based computing paradigm, today announced a partnership with Ansys (NASDAQ: ANSS), a provider of engineering simulation software. Following a successful test…
From insideHPC
Photonic Reports Quantum Error Correction Advance
VANCOUVER, BC, February 11, 2025 – Photonic Inc. has introduced a low-overhead family of Quantum Low-Density Parity Check (QLDPC) codes that can efficiently perform both quantum computation and error correction, using materially…
From insideHPC
Digihost to Develop HPC and AI-Tier Data Centers
MIAMI, Feb. 11, 2025 — Digihost Technology Inc. announced the formation of US Data Centers, Inc. (USDC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company dedicated to development of high-performance computing- and artificial intelligence…
From insideHPC
MLCommons Releases AILuminate LLM v1.1 with French Language Capabilities
Paris – February 11, 2025: MLCommons, in partnership with the AI Verify Foundation, today released v1.1 of AILuminate, incorporating new French language capabilities into its first-of-its-kind AI safety benchmark. The new update…
From insideHPC
Justin Hotard Leaves Intel, Named CEO and President of Nokia
The long-term high turnover rate at Intel of senior managers holding HPC and AI-related responsibilities continues apace with today's news that Justin Hotard, EVP/GM of the company's Data Center and AI Group, is leaving Intel…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
Final Call for CCC Council Nominations
This Friday, February 14 is your last chance to nominate yourself or a colleague to be a CCC Council member for a three-year term beginning July 1, 2025 and concluding June 30, 2028. Read more here. To nominate someone, please…
From insideHPC
HPC News Bytes 20250210: Big AI CAPEX Binge, More Data Center SMRs, Euro-Origin Quantum, Softbank Eyes Ampere
Good post-Super Bowl morning to you! The past week was somewhat calm relative to the riotous preceding period in the world of HPC-AI, but still, important developments emerged. Here’s a fast (5:52) overview: the four "Big AI"…
From insideHPC
Nuclear Power: X-Energy Closes $700M Round for SMR Development
ROCKVILLE, Md., February 6, 2025 – X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC (“X-energy”), a leader in advanced nuclear reactor and fuel technology, today announced the closing of its upsized Series C-1 financing round of $700 million. Segra…
From insideHPC
TSMC January 2025 Revenue Report and Earthquake Impact Statement
HSINCHU, Taiwan, R.O.C. – Feb. 10, 2025 – TSMC (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) today announced its net revenue for January 2025: On a consolidated basis, revenue for January 2025 was approximately NT$293.29 billion, an increase of 5.4…
From insideHPC
atNorth Awarded Iceland Infrastructure Prize
Reykjavík, Iceland – February 10th, 2025 – atNorth, the Nordic colocation, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence service provider, today announced its recognition at one of Iceland’s information technology …
From Schneier on Security
Pairwise Authentication of Humans
Here’s an easy system for two humans to remotely authenticate to each other, so they can be sure that neither are digital impersonations.
To mitigate that risk, I have developed this simple solution where you can setup a unique…From Writing
A Minimum Viable Product Is Not a Product, It's a Process
I originally posted this article on Y Combinator’s blog on January 22, 2016 (Internet Archive link), but it seems like they have taken it down, so I’m reposting it here, on my personal blog. See also previous discussions of…
From Computational Complexity
Does Lance dislike Ramsey Theory Because he's colorblind?
BILL: Lance, my wife asked if you dislike Ramsey Theory because you are colorblind.
LANCE: (laughs) It's why I don't like Ramsey Theory talks--impossible for me to follow. But I don't actually dislike Ramsey theory. I just don't…From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Peter Landin: Elegance from Logic
Celebrating LGBTQ+ Greats Thousands of programming languages have been invented in the many decades since the first. But what makes a good language? A key idea behind language design is that they should make it easy to writeContinue…
From Schneier on Security
UK is Ordering Apple to Break its Own Encryption
The Washington Post is reporting that the UK government has served Apple with a “technical capability notice” as defined by the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act, requiring them to break the Advanced Data Protection encryption in…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Thread-safe memory copy
A common operation in software is the copy of a block of memory. In C/C++, we often call the function memcpy for this purpose. But what happens if, while you are copying the data, another thread is modifying either the source…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: The Colossal Squid
Long article on the colossal squid.
From insideHPC
@HPCpodcast: Addison Snell on the Present and Future of HPC-AI, Quantum, DeepSeek, Interconnects, Leadership Supercomputing
We delve into current market sizing for HPC-AI (the conjoining of the two being a relatively new focus), a look ahead at the rest of the year and the decade, the impact of hyperscalers on AI, the future of leadership computing…
From Schneier on Security
Screenshot-Reading Malware
Kaspersky is reporting on a new type of smartphone malware.
The malware in question uses optical character recognition (OCR) to review a device’s photo library, seeking screenshots of recovery phrases for crypto wallets. Based…From insideHPC
Barcelona Supercomputing Center Unveils Quantum Systen Developed with 100% European Technology
Feb. 6, 2025 — The Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) – has presented what it said is the first quantum computer developed with 100 percent European technology. “This milestone consolidates…
From insideHPC
DOE Office of Science: Applications for Graduate Student Research Awards Due May 7
Feb. 7, 2025 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science announce that the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is now accepting applications for the 2025 solicitation 1 cycle. Applications…