LONDON (AP) — Graphics chip maker Nvidia said Monday it plans to build Britain’s fastest supercomputer that healthcare researchers can use to work on medical problems including COVID-19.
Nvidia, based in Santa Clara, California, said it will spend 40 million pounds ($52 million) on the supercomputer, dubbed Cambridge-1, which will consist of 80 Nvidia systems and is expected to be online by the end of the year.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Cambridge-1 will be available to healthcare researchers using artificial intelligence to working on urgent medical challenges.
“Tackling the world’s most pressing challenges in healthcare requires massively powerful computing resources to harness the capabilities of AI,” Huang said.
Cambridge-1 would be ranked the world’s 29th most powerful supercomputer and the most powerful in the U.K., the company said.
Pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are among the groups that have already signed up to use the supercomputer.
The announcement comes after the company said last month it agreed to buy U.K.-based chip designer Arm Holdings for up to $40 billion, and would set up an artificial intelligence research center in Cambridge, England, where Arm is headquartered.
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.