5 predictions for 2022: High-performance computing will break into the clouds, but quantum will continue baby steps

At the start of 2022, we bring you a series of episodes that pull together the five most interesting predictions we found in multiple areas in tech. Today we look at high-performance computing, in which the processing power of a billion-billion calculations per second is close to reality. As to quantum computing, real-world problem solving is still far away, experts say. 1. High-performance computing on the cloud will go mainstream High-Performance Computing (HPC) in the cloud has reached the mainstream, according to a report by Market Watch, which projects that the market for cloud HPC will rise from $6.9 billion in 2020 to $146 billion by 2027. The major factors driving the growth of the cloud HPC market are - complex applications management, the emergence of the big data market, & the adoption of the pay-as-you-go model. IBM, Microsoft, Google, Dell, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Penguin Computing, Sabalcore Computing, Adaptive Computing, Gompute, & Univa Corporation are among the companies leading the market. 2. And so HPC-as-a-service will find traction Many vendors have moved from selling equipment to providing HPCaaS, & its rise is linked to the emergence of the cloud as an HPC solution, according to Verdict. The trend towards HPCaaS is, therefore, benefitting cloud players such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, & Alibaba although traditional HPC vendors are also offering HPCaaS. HPCaaS can be a compelling option for end-users as it puts intense data processing & workloads that require high-performance within reach of companies that lack the necessary capital to hire skilled staff & invest in hardware. HPCaaS brings HPC capabilities to those companies that cannot afford to develop HPC knowledge & infrastructure in-house. 3. Exascale HPC will arrive The high-performance computing (HPC) industry for a decade has been planning for the arrival of exascale systems—supercomputers that can process at least one exaflop or a quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second. After years of planning, innovations & missed deadlines, the world is ready to fully embrace exascale computing, according to The New Stack. In the US, the first of three planned exascale systems—Frontier, which will be powered by AMD Epyc processors & Radeon Instinct MI200 GPUs—is being assembled at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory & is expected to deliver a performance of 1.5 exaflops. On the heels of that will come Aurora, which will run on Intel’s new 4th Generation Xeon Scalable Sapphire Rapids CPUs & Xe-HPC Ponte Vecchio GPUs. It’s expected to be completed later in 2022 at the Argonne National Lab. 4. Quantum computing will continue baby steps As to quantum computing, the technology is steadily improving, but it will likely continue to boast more media coverage than practical applications in 2022, experts at consultancy Deloitte predict. Fewer than a dozen companies worldwide will be using QCs as part of their day-to-day operations & only for a limited number of use cases, mainly around optimisation problems. The 2022 revenues for QC hardware, software, & QC-as-a-service will likely be less than $500 million. 5. Investments in QC will likely remain strong Investor interest will likely continue to be strong, according to Deloitte. VCs invested more than $1 billion into the sector in 2021, & one company even went public with a multibillion-dollar valuation. Further, investment in quantum by governments, including China, India, Japan, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, & the US, will likely bring the total to more than $5 billion for the year, Deloitte estimates.

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Every week day, Forbes India's Hari Arakali, Editor - Tech & Innovation, brings you his take on one piece of tech news that caught his attention, covering everything from big tech to India's growing tech startup ecosystem.