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Alibaba developing quantum chips to power diverse industries (LEAD)
Hangzhou (China), Sep 19 (IANS) China’s e-tailer giant Alibaba group is developing quantum chips (processors) to power a range of industries, including e-commerce, logistics, finance, materials and pharmaceuticals, a senior official said on Wednesday.
“Our DAMO Academy is developing quantum chips to power solutions for a range of industries, including e-commerce, logistics, finance, materials and pharmaceutics,” said Alibaba Chief Technology Officer Jeff Zhang at the group’s “Cloud Computing Conference 2018” in this scenic ancient city, about 180km southwest of Shanghai.
The acronym DAMO is Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook.
Unveiling the $40-billion group’s road map to develop disruptive technologies over the next five years on the opening day of the annual tech event, Zhang said the academy would launch its first AI (Artificial Intelligence) inference chip (AliNPU) in the second half of 2019 for using in autonomous driving, smart cities and smart logistics.
“We are confident that our advantages in algorithm, data intelligence, computing power and domain knowledge on the back of our diverse ecosystem will enable us to lead real technology breakthroughs in disruptive areas, such as quantum and chip technology,” Zhang said at the inaugural session of the four-day conference.
Alibaba also announced setting up a chip subsidiary for customising AI chips and embedded processors to support its cloud and IoT businesses and offer intelligent solutions to different industries.
The academy is the group’s global initiative to develop disruptive technologies for its cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) businesses and explore commercial applications in its diverse verticals spanning logistics, materials and pharma, which require greater computing power to achieve technology breakthroughs.
“We have been a leading innovator in cloud computing and AI since our announcement two years ago to transform the group into a technology powerhouse, The academy’s achievements over the past year underlies our commitment to technology leadership,” asserted Zhang.
The expansion to hardware reflects the academy’s conviction that the co-development of hardware and application will expedite the realization of quantum computing’s revolutionary potentials.
The academy will also spur R&D in AI chips for training on the cloud and IoT applications and build a cloud-based IoT infrastructure, with computational power for the company’s data centres and IoT businesses like smart homes and smart logistics.
With about 300 researchers worldwide, the academy focuses on machine intelligence, robotics, fintech, data computing and quantum computing.
University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are its global partners.
The company also announced ‘Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition’ to groom the next-generation math geniuses and raise awareness about the importance of this subject.
About 60,000 delegates, including technology leaders, experts and industry luminaries from the world are participating in the conference.
The tech summit is being held over a week after Alibaba founder-chairman Jack Ma announced on September 10 that he would step down and make way for Chief Executive Daniel Zhang to succeed him in September 2019.
Alibaba is headquartered in Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang.
The ninth edition of the tech fest is featuring latest trends in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, internet of things and blockchain.
–IANS
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International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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