Multiple Israeli media outlets are reporting that Intel wants to acquire Mellanox, who is best know for their Infiniband and ethernet switches and network adapters. Globes claims that Intel bid “about $5.5-5.6 billion,” while the Times of Israel says the bid is between $5 billion and $6 billion in cash and stock, which represented a 30% premium over Mellanox’s recent stock price. If all this sounds familiar, that’s because reports from last December allege that Xilinx and Microsoft are interested in acquiring the company too. While Intel already makes ethernet NICs and has other interconnects of their own, Mellanox’s products are still used extensively in datacenters and supercomputers that are built around Intel CPUs.



Intel has rival activities to Mellanox, which develops chips that allow swifter transmission of big data. Based in Yokneam, Mellanox sells its products to server farms with mega computers such as universities and other organizations including NASA. Mellanox’s customers also include Dell and HPE, which build the server farms for huge companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon. Mellanox has reportedly hired investment banks to help find a buyer. The report of Intel’s interest comes a day after confirmation that the chipmaker plans investing $11 billion in a new fab in Kiryat Gat.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Intel Allegedly Places .5 Billion Bid For Mellanox

Columbia Engineering researchers have used deep learning, a machine learning (ML) technique, to teach a robot to become self-aware. A four-degree-of-freedom articulated robotic arm moved randomly and collected data from one thousand trajectories, each comprising of one hundred points. The robotic arm was not presented with prior knowledge of physics, geometry, or motor dynamics. Deep learning allowed the robot to initially create an inaccurate self-model that did not know what it was or how its joints were connected. But after nearly 35 hours of training, the self-model was accurate within 4 cm.

This allowed the robot to perform “pick and place” tasks in a closed loop where it recalibrated itself based on its self-model as it moved. The objects in this task were placed onto the ground at specific locations each time. This allowed the robot to grasp objects and place them into a receptacle with a 100% success rate. When presented with the same task but in an open loop system; where it had to rely solely upon its internal self-model without external feedback, the robot performed the task with a 44% success rate. “‘That’s like trying to pick up a glass of water with your eyes closed, a process difficult even for humans,’ observed the study’s lead author Kwiatkowski, a PhD student in the computer science department who works in Lipson’s lab.” The robot is now capable of detecting and compensating for broken parts. It will re-imagine and retrain itself when damaged. The robot arm can also write text messages to researchers.



To date, robots have operated by having a human explicitly model the robot. “But if we want robots to become independent, to adapt quickly to scenarios unforeseen by their creators, then it’s essential that they learn to simulate themselves,” says Hod Lipson, professor of mechanical engineering, and director of the Creative Machines lab, where the research was done. Lipson, who is also a member of the Data Science Institute, notes that self-imaging is key to enabling robots to move away from the confinements of so-called “narrow-AI” towards more general abilities. “This is perhaps what a newborn child does in its crib, as it learns what it is,” he says. “We conjecture that this advantage may have also been the evolutionary origin of self-awareness in humans. While our robot’s ability to imagine itself is still crude compared to humans, we believe that this ability is on the path to machine self-awareness.” Lipson and Kwiatkowski are aware of the ethical implications. “Self-awareness will lead to more resilient and adaptive systems, but also implies some loss of control,” they warn. “It’s a powerful technology, but it should be handled with care.” The researchers are now exploring whether robots can model not just their own bodies, but also their own minds, i.e. whether robots can think about thinking.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Columbia Engineering Researchers Create a Self-Aware Robot