AI Chip King Pursues 6G Technology, Creates One City Simulation
Photo: nVIDIA (REUTERS/ Mike Blake)
- Chip manufacturer Nvidia launched a software platform supported by artificial intelligence (AI) to help research 6G technology. This platform provides a simulation of a 6G communications ecosystem on a cloud infrastructure.
The latest cellular communications technology, known as 6G, is expected to begin rolling out in 2023 as a replacement for 5G technology.
The telecommunications industry, including mobile infrastructure, is increasingly using software and AI. One of them is in the form of RAN (radio access network) hardware at the base transceiver station (BTS) and antenna.
Nvidia's newly released platform, for one, provides applications for simulating environments both in single base stations and entire cities. This application gives researchers the space to test 6G networks in real-time.
According to Nvidia, the platform is already in use by Ansys, Nokia, Samsung, SoftBank Corp, and Northeastern University in Boston.
"The rapid increase in the number of connected devices and new applications in 6G requires a major leap in wireless spectrum efficiency in radio communications," said Ronnie Vasishta, Senior Vice President Telecom at Nvidia.
Reuters, citing telecom analysts, said hardware suppliers are no longer major players in the mobile infrastructure industry. The role of chip companies and cloud providers is getting bigger so they are needed as new partners.
Nvidia itself is holding a global AI conference for software developers in San Jose, California. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, introduced the latest chip made by Nvidia which is claimed to be 30 times faster at performing certain tasks than its predecessor.