Q.ANT announced the availability of the Q.ANT NPU 2, its next-generation Native Processing Unit that performs nonlinear mathematics natively in light. The company says the NPU 2 delivers orders-of-magnitude improvements in energy efficiency and performance for Artificial Intelligence and high-performance workloads. Q.ANT positions the photonic processor as enabling new classes of applications, listing physical Artificial Intelligence and advanced robotics alongside next-generation computer vision, industrial intelligence, physics-based simulation and scientific discovery.
The company is offering the NPU 2 directly as a 19-inch server solution that includes an x86 host processor and a Linux operating system. Q.ANT describes the device as a platform for algorithms that its statement says digital circuits cannot reach, because the processor performs nonlinear processing in the optical domain. The release emphasizes the combination of performance and sustainability, framing the NPU 2 as a capability that changes the energy equation for demanding workloads.
Dr. Michael Förtsch, chief executive officer of Q.ANT, framed the product as a new class of processors that go beyond incremental digital improvements and enable superior algorithms. He said, “For years, Artificial Intelligence has raced ahead of our ability to power it; energy became the new frontier. With our NPUs, we’ve changed the equation. Our NPU 2 proves that performance and sustainability aren’t opposing forces. They’re one and the same.” Q.ANT highlights the NPU 2’s enhanced nonlinear processing capabilities as the core technical advance driving its target use cases and server-based product offering.
