Quantum #81

This week’s HPC news comes to you loaded with ibuprofen, paracetamol and caffeine whilst watching KPop Demon Hunters with the kids. Yep, we’re all sick. Be glad you’re not being subjected to the chorus of “Golden” or “What it Sounds Like”. Actually, I quite like both of those. Oops did I just admit that out loud.

I wonder how KPop Demon Hunters was rendered. I know Pixar used to (maybe still do?) preferred CPUs rather than GPUs due to memory limitations. A quick search and some Gemini output seems to indicate that Sony Pictures used Unreal Engine for KPop Demon Hunters, not sure how true that is but assuming it is, I would guess that means it was GPU rendered. Not an area of HPC I know much about at all. Anyone in my network want to share?

The rest of your HPC news is below. I make no guarantees about my lucidity or state of mind whilst writing this so take it at your own risk 😉

In The News

Updates from the big three clouds on all things HPC. Couple of new VM types from AWS, a scary vulnerability on Azure and the DORA report on AI from Google.

HPC Cloud Updates WE 12 Oct 2025

Boof tells us the difference between PCS and PC, a couple of new instance types using AMD and Intel processors that look handy for HPC workload. Google gives us a way to reduce bills and the all-important DORA report.

Flux by HMx LabsHamza

AMD finds a way back into the AI space with a strange circular deal with OpenAI

AMD and OpenAI Unveil Massive Chip Deal for AI Inference

Another week, another massive investment in chips by an AI firm. This week’s edition features OpenAI committing to buying billions of dollars worth of AI accelerators from AMD, one of […]

HPCwireAlex Woodie

Intel finally reveals a new processor that we can hope might be competitive. I think there’s going to be a lot riding on this one

Intel Announces 18A-based 2nm Clearwater Forest Server CPU from Fab 52 in Arizona

Intel today unveiled its most advanced semiconductor process and previewed Xeon 6+ (code-named Clearwater Forest), its first Intel 18A-based 2nm data center server chip .... - Read more from Inside HPC & AI News.

Inside HPC & AI News | High-Performance Computing & Artificial Intelligencestaff

I know I mentioned this last week too, but HPC Wire’s take has some interesting insight into Rivos and the potential future for AI acceleration on custom silicon

What Meta’s Purchase of Rivos Says About RISC-V

News dropped last week that Meta has acquired Rivos, an AI chip startup that has taped out a CUDA-compatible RISC-V processor with favorable efficiency parameters. The acquisition comes amid a […]

HPCwireAlex Woodie

From HMx Labs

There are some fun similarities between HPC in academia and finance that I would never have thought I’d find

HPC in Finance and Academia: Chocolate and Peanut Butter

HPC in academia and financial services has a surprising amount in common and I don’t just mean the obvious challenges of operating at scale.

Flux by HMx LabsHamza

Yes, AI is in a bubble. Yet somehow, even being a die-hard AI sceptic (whilst simultaneously making a lot of us of it to create code and content at HMx Labs!) I am actually starting to see some extended utility. Nothing close to the heady proportions that Altman and company would like you to believe and possibly not with LLMs but utility with AI non the less on the horizon. There’s still work to do before we get there though.

AI Adoption (in FSI)

I don’t often talk about AI but I thought I’d share a few insights and join a few dots on what I’m seeing on AI adoption within financial services.

Flux by HMx LabsHamza

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