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 Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Eating Bioluminescent Squid
Firefly squid is now a delicacy in New York.
From insideHPC
@HPCpodcast: With Hyperion Research on the Big Trends Across HPC-AI, Quantum, Cloud, Optical, Storage and Interconnects
We dive into numbers coming out Hyperion’s latest HPC-AI market update, including the strong current and projected industry CAGRs, the state of quantum computing (including thoughts on recent negative comments about quantum from…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CCC Welcomes New Program Associate, Alina Gerall
We are excited to welcome Alina Gerall as a new Program Associate for the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) subcommittee! In her new role, Alina will assist CCC staff with administrative tasks and logistical matters,…
From insideHPC
HNO International Converting Wasted Flared Gas into Energy for Data Centers, Bitcoin Mining and Hydrogen
MURRIETA, CA — February 26, 2025 / HNO International, Inc. (OTC PINK:HNOI), a hydrogen-based clean energy company, announces the launch of EcoFlare Power, a division focused on harnessing wasted natural gas from flaring to generate…
From insideHPC
SoftBank, ZutaCore and Foxconn Join on Rack-Integrated Solution with Liquid Cooling for NVIDIA H200s
Feb. 28, 2025 — SoftBank Corp., ZutaCore and Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) today announced that they implemented ZutaCore’s two-phase direct liquid cooling technology*1 in an AI server using NVIDIA accelerated computing.…
From insideHPC
Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation Condemns Mass Firing of Science Agency Employees
As the Trump Administration with Elon Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) seeks to cut federal government employee roles, “probationary employees” (those who have not held jobs long enough to garner full civil service…
From insideHPC
LLNL Examines Exoplanet Atmospheres with HPC
Feb. 27, 2025 — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory released this update on researchers’ use of high performance computing resources to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, which are planets beyond our own solar system.
…
From Schneier on Security
“Emergent Misalignment” in LLMs
Interesting research: “Emergent Misalignment: Narrow finetuning can produce broadly misaligned LLMs“:
Abstract: We present a surprising result regarding LLMs and alignment. In our experiment, a model is finetuned to output insecure…From ACM-W supporting, celebrating and advocating for Women in Computing
Congratulations to the trailblazing ACM Fellows!
The ACM has named 55 members ACM Fellows for significant contributions to computing. The ACM Fellows program recognizes the top 1% of ACM Members for their outstanding accomplishments in computing and information technology and…
From ACM-W supporting, celebrating and advocating for Women in Computing
Celebrating Technology Leaders Episode 16: An Inside Look at ACM-W Professional Chapters
While ACM-W is widely known for its supportive network within research and education, did you know we also have a growing global community of Professional Chapters for women in tech? In this special session, we introduced the…
From insideHPC
Exascale: Argonne-led Team Trains AI to Take on Infectious Threats with Frontier and Aurora
ASCR, the Advanced Scientific Computing Research program within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, has released a report on the use of exascale -class supercomputers, Frontier and Aurora, using the combination…
From The Computing Community Consortium Blog
CCC Announces Upcoming Workshop on Defining the Role of Computing Research in Neural Interfacing
The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is pleased to announce an upcoming workshop focused on exploring the role of computing research in neural interfacing. This workshop, co-organized by Abhishek Bhattacharjee (Yale University)…
From Computational Complexity
You Need Much Less Memory than Time
Just as I was complaining that we haven't seen many surprising breakthroughs in complexity recently, we get an earthquake of a result to start the year, showing that all algorithms can be simulated using considerable less memory…
From Schneier on Security
An iCloud Backdoor Would Make Our Phones Less Safe
Last month, the UK government demanded that Apple weaken the security of iCloud for users worldwide. On Friday, Apple took steps to comply for users in the United Kingdom. But the British law is written in a way that requires…
From insideHPC
Quantum: Toyota Tsusho to Partner with ORCA Computing
LONDON and AUSTIN, February 25, 2025 — Quantum computing company ORCA Computing and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Toyota Tsusho), a member of the Toyota Group, delivering to countries around the world a diverse range of products…
From insideHPC
Generative Imaging AI Will Use Game Engines and Synthetic Data to Train Models
By Chris Zacharias, CEO, Imgix Imagine an AI capable of transforming a single photograph into a living, breathing scene. Change the lighting, the weather, or even the camera angle with just a few clicks. This is not a distant…
From insideHPC
Micron Announces Sample Shipments of 1-gamma DRAM
BOISE, Idaho, Feb. 25, 2025 — Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) today said it is the first company to ship samples of its 1γ (1-gamma), sixth-generation (10nm-class) DRAM node-based DDR5 memory designed for next-generation…
From insideHPC
Three LLNL Scientists Honored with Presidential Early Career Award
Design physicist Kelli Humbird, who has been recognized for her innovative application of machine learning in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) physics, was one of three distinguished LLNL researchers honored with a Presidential…
From Schneier on Security
North Korean Hackers Steal $1.5B in Cryptocurrency
It looks like a very sophisticated attack against the Dubai-based exchange Bybit:
Bybit officials disclosed the theft of more than 400,000 ethereum and staked ethereum coins just hours after it occurred. The notification said…From insideHPC
Cisco and NVIDIA Expand Networking Partnership
Cisco [NASDAQ: CSCO] today announced plans for an expanded partnership with NVIDIA to provide AI technology solutions to enterprises. The NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform based on Cisco and NVIDIA silicon is intended…
From insideHPC
Quantum Machines Raises $170M Series C
February 25, 2025 — Quantum Machines (QM), a provider of quantum control solutions, today announced it has raised $170 million in Series C funding, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $280 million. The investment
…
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Maria Kirch: human computer of the 1600s and 1700s
Maria Kirch was a very early female human computer. Working in the late 1600s into the early 1700s, with her husband, she created astronomical tables that while mainly used for astrological purposes were also useful for navigation…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
Writing Directions Is Hard
I finished assembling a new bed frame yesterday. I seems solid with good quality materials and seems well designed. The directions on the other hand left something to be desired. Some things were unclear and resulted in some…
From The Noisy Channel
Not All Recall is Created Equal
Search application developers constantly navigate tradeoffs, particularly between precision and recall. Precision measures the fraction of retrieved results that are relevant, while recall measures the fraction of relevant documents…
From insideHPC
Intel Unveils Xeon 6 CPUs with P-cores
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 24, 2025 – Intel today launched its Xeon 6 processors with Performance-cores (P-cores) for data center and networking portfolios. The company said: The Intel Xeon 6700/6500 series processor with P-cores…
From insideHPC
Lenovo Announces ThinkSystem V4 Servers with Intel Xeon 6
February 24, 2025 – Today, Lenovo announced three new infrastructure solutions, powered by Intel Xeon 6 processors, designed for AI data centers. The solutions include next generation Lenovo ThinkSystem V4 servers “that deliver…
From insideHPC
Q.ANT and IMS CHIPS Launch Pilot Production Line for Photonic AI Chips in Stuttgart
Q.ANT, a photonic AI chip company, said today it has launched a dedicated production line for its AI chips at the Institute of Microelectronics Stuttgart (IMS CHIPS).Capable of producing up to 1,000 wafers per year, the pilot…
From insideHPC
QuEra Announces Collaboration with Deloitte Tohmatsu for Quantum in Japan
February 25, 2025 – QuEra Computing Inc. has started a collaboration with Deloitte Tohmatsu Group intended to advance the quantum industry in Japan. The collaboration, reinforced by an investment in QuEra by Deloitte Tohmatsu…
From Schneier on Security
More Research Showing AI Breaking the Rules
These researchers had LLMs play chess against better opponents. When they couldn’t win, they sometimes resorted to cheating.
Researchers gave the models a seemingly impossible task: to win against Stockfish, which is one of …From Computational Complexity
Why my department hopes I do not die this spring
Alice is scheduled to teach X in the Spring.
Then Alice CAN"T! (illness, death, or some other reason)
What is the department to do?
1) If its an undergraduate class than likely there are other people who are QUALIFIED. Perhaps a…