Taichi: The AI-focused chip powered by light
RESEARCHERS at Beijing’s Tsinghua University have developed a highperformance chip for complex artificial intelligence (AI) processing that is powered by light rather than electricity.
Called Taichi, this photonic AI chip is also energy-efficient.
With its unique design aimed at handling complex tasks, this chip has a computing capacity of several million neurons.
Here, photons replace electrons and light replaces electricity. Its optical components are capable of processing extremely complex operations faster such as those required by machine learning.
Data transfer by light is faster and up to 1,000 times more energy efficient than a traditional electronic chip.
The Taichi chip represents a major innovation in the field of AI and photonic computing. This technology exploits the properties of light to enable very highspeed calculations, paving the way for a whole new generation of dedicated chips for applications in generative AI, research, robotics and even the management of more complex systems linked to the so-called smart cities of the future.
This project illustrates the advancement of photonics technology in the information technology (IT) sector, offering promising prospects.
It will, however, face a number of hurdles before it becomes widely available as this type of chip is still highly complex and expensive to produce without mentioning the challenge of making the technology compatible with existing IT systems.
This research is detailed in a paper published in the ‘Science Journal’.