Israel Innovation Authority has announced it has chosen the Israeli company ‘Next Silicon’ to establish a research and development (R&D) lab that will support accelerated research and development in hardware components, communication, and software for AI computation, high-performance computing (HPC), data centers and processing units.
The Authority is investing up to NIS 30 million in the project.
Next Silicon was chosen following a competitive process by the Authority to lead a consortium of four Israeli companies that have developed unique solutions in areas such as HPC, AI acceleration, branding, and specialized memory access.
Next Silicon develops processing technologies capable of accelerating computing applications at high speeds with maximum energy efficiency, without requiring any changes in code or user adaptations. The company’s headquarters are located in Givatayim, with additional branches in Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva, Haifa, and Yokneam.
The HPC R&D Lab will feature a variety of state-of-the-art computing, communication, and storage equipment from world-leading suppliers. It will provide R&D services to startups, companies, and researchers for the acceleration of technological developments in HPC and AI computational technologies.
The Lab will serve as a foundation for various hardware and software experiments, equipment, infrastructure programming, and will also offer R&D services to Israeli corporations and research institutions. The goal of the Lab is to lower entry barriers for researchers and companies, fostering Israeli innovation and breakthroughs.
“We are continuing the practical implementation phase of the national plan for Artificial Intelligence, which is at the top of the government’s priorities in the field of technology,” said Ofir Akunis, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology.
“Today, we are launching the program to establish an R&D laboratory for accelerating the development of supercomputing technologies, parallel to the national program for implementing artificial intelligence in the government that was launched yesterday.
“The policy led by the government will position Israel at the forefront of other countries in the world in the field of artificial intelligence.”
Israel Innovation Authority CEO Dror Bin noted that currentlyy, due to a lack of such infrastructure in Israel, many startups are forced to choose between establishing expensive infrastructure themselves (which hinders their growth) or seeking services from global giants, leading to a “brain drain” early on, and for advancements in development processes to take place in other countries.
“Israel has identified artificial intelligence as a domain in which it wishes to maintain its leadership, and this initiative aims to change the current situation, creating a platform that provides a viable alternative for researchers and companies to continue their research activities in the country,” Bin said.
“We believe that choosing Next Silicon will boost research and development capabilities in deep technology and artificial intelligence. We look forward to seeing the Israeli ecosystem utilize the infrastructure and services provided for evaluation, optimization, and adaptation to advanced processing environments, financial feasibility tests, and preparedness for the challenges of this disruptive technology.”
There is a significant market demand for new and advanced architectures that will allow breakthrough services in areas such as Machine Learning (ML)/Artificial Intelligence (AI), analytics and big data, networks, and advanced data processing capabilities.
Young technology companies in the computing field also need to integrate new and advanced technologies into their products, including during the development stages, and are therefore looking for ways to test and upgrade their technologies before launching them in the market.
Next Silicon is expected to provide a wide range of services, based on a physical service lab, that are not feasible with the public cloud infrastructures.
These include:
• Integration and programming tests for products relevant to HPC infrastructure, such as accelerators, communication solutions, storage infrastructure, cooling infrastructure, scheduler software, and management and control tools.
• Targeted research and development across all hardware and software layers of the infrastructure.
• Collaboration in the R&D lab between Israeli companies or between Israeli companies and research institutions, and integration of components and data in a “neutral” location (an architecture not tied to a specific entity, providing services to all organizations).
• Expert consultation (Professional Services) provided by a team of experts who possess knowledge and expertise in the content world, enabling knowledge dissemination, service provision, and unique capabilities built in the R&D lab for users.
• Training human resources for research, development, support, operation, and other activities in the R&D lab.
