NEWS MODELLING AND SIMULATION


Altair to acquire Datawatch


HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING


Inspur and Intel collaborate to accelerate AI innovation


Intel and Inspur have announced a new collaboration, X-Plan, which aims to accelerate AI innovation. The collaboration covers several items, one of which is the joint innovation and software stack optimisation of AI servers around Intel’s next-generation chips, including the Purley Platform’s new micro- architecture Cascade Lake-SP and neural network processors NNP-L and NNP-I. Based on Intel VNNI’s technology and Inspur’s experience in AI computing markets, both parties will provide powerful and flexible AI accelerated computing and customisable computing architecture systems, so as to help global AI users cope with computing challenges and deliver faster innovations. ‘Currently, the trends of AI industrialisation are becoming more and more obvious. AI computing determines the speed of AI innovation. X-Plan will, via AI computing product innovation and talent training, inject the vitality of continuous innovation into global AI R&D institutions and commercial companies to promote the improvement and development of industrial AI,’ said Liu Jun, GM of AI and HPC at Inspur. The Inspur and Intel joint AI laboratory will bring together engineering and R&D teams from both companies and focus on innovation in AI computing, algorithms and applications, to provide strong R&D


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support for the X-Plan. In addition, Inspur and Intel plan to collaborate extensively with universities and research institutions to promote the development and improvement of AI ecosystems through talent training. ‘AI has become an important form


of computing for the present and the future. Its development depends on a good ecosystem. The X-Plan will become an important part of Intel’s global AI computing ecosystem, with the goal of providing the global customers with efficient AI computing products and building a good talent development environment,’ said Nash Palaniswamy, senior director of global technical computing at Intel. Inspur has been investing heavily in


the development of AI infrastructures in four layers, including a comprehensive computing platform, a complete management and performance suite, optimised deep learning frameworks, and end-to-end, agile, cost-efficient AI solutions for its industry customers. Inspur has become the most important AI server supplier for Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, and helps AI customers increase compute performance in voice, image, IVA, search, networking etc. In IDC’s 2017 China AI Infrastructure


Market Survey Report, Inspur had a 57 per cent market share in AI servers.


December 2018/January 2019 Scientific Computing World 23


Altair has announced a definitive merger agreement under which Altair has agreed to acquire Datawatch. Altair will pay $13.10 per share in cash, representing a fully diluted equity value of approximately $176 million. The transaction was unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies. James Scapa, Altair’s founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, commented: ‘Bringing Datawatch into Altair should result in a powerful offering consistent with our vision to transform product design and decision making by applying simulation, data science and optimisation throughout product lifecycles. We see a convergence of simulation with the application of machine learning technology to live and historical sensor data as essential to creating better products, marketing them efficiently, and optimising their in-service performance. Datawatch is a great team of people with best-in-class products, and we look forward to them joining us.’ Altair believes the acquisition


of Datawatch will be useful in a number of different markets that want to leverage data analytics and data science technologies. Datawatch’s solutions, which include data prep, data prediction, and real-time high-volume data visualisation technologies, are highly relevant and applicable to almost any company and vertical market. Altair also reports that there is opportunity to cross- sell Datawatch products into Altair’s primarily manufacturing customer base. Michael Morrison, chief


executive officer of Datawatch, added: ‘The Datawatch team is excited to join Altair and benefit from its long track record of success with developing and bringing to market highly differentiated software technology across diverse industry verticals. We feel great about the cultural alignment and look forward to driving continued innovation in our market-leading solutions as an integral part of Altair’s vision.’


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