How the start-up Q.ANT envisions the solution to AI's hunger for energy

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More and more people are becoming aware that AI not only solves problems, but also has a tangible impact: Goldman Sachs analysts, for example, point out that the energy requirements for AI data centers are expected to increase by a whopping 160 percent by 2030. According to the market research institute Gartner, this could even lead to up to 40 percent of existing AI data centers being restricted in their ability to operate due to power shortages.

The Stuttgart-based start-up Q.ANT now wants to change this. Its "photonic native processing unit" (NPU), which was developed for both AI applications and complex simulations, sits on a PCI Express card and is therefore fully compatible with the existing server landscape. According to the company, it also has "at least 30 times higher energy efficiency and significant improvements in computing speed compared to conventional CMOS technology."

Technical advantages and prospects

Tests and simulations on image recognition show that the NPU from Q.ANT can also train models significantly faster and achieve better results with fewer parameters. According to the company, it also enables faster solutions for partial differential equations in physics simulations, simplifies time series analysis and improves efficiency in solving graph theory problems. However, no scientific publications have yet been published to prove this.

Made in Germany

"Silicon is a cool material when it comes to building transistors," says Michael Förtsch, CEO of Q.ANT, "but it's rubbish for optics. That's why I postulated the thin-film lithium niobate material system back then, but everyone told me that you'd never get it into the world's foundries. And my reaction to that was: then we'll just build the pilot lines ourselves. That's what we did and we set up our first pilot line on this topic in Stuttgart and showed that we can build these chips." Every three months, says Förtsch, the company can now produce a new generation of chips because they have full control over the production process. "It is also possible in Germany to once again make a mark in the logic sector."

Innovation through light technology

Photonic chips calculate with light instead of electrons. This means that there are no electrical losses in the chips – and therefore no waste heat. Such chips could therefore represent an energy-saving alternative. However, although start-ups such as Lightintelligence and Lighton are already offering the first photonic chips, the technology has not yet been particularly successful.

Involved in the first photonic quantum computer

Q.ANT also coordinates the PhoQuant funding program of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, in which 13 partners are researching the topic of photonic quantum computers. The result is Europe's largest sampling-based quantum computer PaQS (Paderborn Quantum Sampler), which is now computing at Paderborn University. . A second device is soon to go into operation at the Fraunhofer Research Institute for Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF) in Jena.

This article first appeared on t3n.de.

(mack)