Day: December 6, 2023

Global Momentum and Demand for VAST Data Establishes Company as the Market Leader for Deep Learning and AI Infrastructure

NO-HEADQUARTERS | NEW YORK, Dec. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — VAST Data, the AI data platform company, announced today that it has secured $118 million in Series E funding, led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and accompanied by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), BOND Capital and Drive Capital.

The funding will advance VAST Data’s mission to deliver a new category of infrastructure that puts data at the center of how systems think, react, and discover. This breakthrough will empower organizations to effectively address their most pressing data challenges, enabling unprecedented advancements in technology, economics, social dynamics, and scientific research.

The VAST Data Platform unifies storage, database, and containerized compute engine services into a single, scalable software platform architected from the ground up to power AI and GPU-accelerated tools in modern data centers and clouds. The platform uniquely enables organizations to understand all data, both structured and unstructured as it exists in the natural world, to generate superior insights and unlock new value.

“A new AI data stack is required,” said Renen Hallak, CEO and Co-Founder of VAST Data. “To be truly impactful in this era of AI and deep learning, you not only want to have a lot of data, but also high quality data that is correctly organized and available at the right place, at the right time. The VAST Data Platform delivers AI infrastructure that opens the door to automated discovery that can solve some of humanity’s most complex challenges.”

“We believe that VAST Data is a pioneer in the AI GPU space,” said Scott Sandell, Chairman, CEO and CIO at NEA. “With deep learning at the center of the massive AI movement we are experiencing, interest and investment in VAST Data has escalated, and we are thrilled to partner with the VAST Data team as they drive influence and innovation in the global AI technology sector.”

The funding follows a pivotal 2023 calendar year, marked by:

• Impressive Business Momentum: At the end of FY’Q3, VAST Data surpassed $1 billion in cumulative software bookings. The company achieved 3.3x year-over-year (YoY) growth and maintained positive cash flow for the last 12 quarters with a gross margin of nearly 90%.
• Organizations Across All Industries Trust VAST Data: VAST Data has amassed a growing customer roster of global enterprises including Booking Holdings, Inc., U.S. Air Force, U.S. Department of Energy, Verizon, Boston Children’s Hospital, Pixar, and Zoom, among others, signaling strong market validation.
• Reimagining AI Cloud Infrastructure: Through innovative customer partnerships with companies like CoreWeave, Lambda and Core42 (formerly G42 Cloud), VAST Data is delivering the infrastructure that is purpose built for next-generation AI clouds.
• Deepened Commitment to Partners: Since its founding, VAST Data has worked closely with partners to break down technology tradeoffs and barriers while improving the overall customer experience. In May 2023, VAST Data furthered this mission with the VAST Data Platform achieving NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD certification, making large scale AI deployments simpler, faster, more reliable and easier to manage. In April 2023, VAST Data entered into a strategic partnership with HPE, helping enterprise customers manage unstructured data with high performance at scale to deliver superior time to data insight.
• Global Expansion: Now with more than 700 employees worldwide VAST Data is actively broadening its business footprint, penetrating new regions in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe.

Supporting Quotes

The VAST Data Platform’s capacity to process large quantities of data at unparalleled scale and speed signifies a transformative shift in industry operations, underscoring the pivotal role of deep learning AI in shaping future advancements. This sentiment was shared by customers and partners across the industry, including:

“Data is every company’s most valuable asset,” said Manuvir Das, vice president of Enterprise Computing at NVIDIA. “NVIDIA and Vast Data are collaborating to enable enterprises to harness their data using accelerated computing and cloud-based AI solutions to tackle their biggest challenges.”

“Some of the most data-intensive and computationally advanced customers on the planet trust CoreWeave, NVIDIA and VAST to deliver the most secure and scalable solutions on top of the industry’s fastest and most flexible AI infrastructure,” said Michael Intrator, CEO and co-founder of CoreWeave. “We’re honored to partner with VAST to provide purpose-built accelerated computing solutions that solve the complex AI and data challenges that enterprises face now and into the future.”

“Data is the only competitive advantage in AI and therefore infrastructure that can simplify and scale data access is crucial for any organization training AI models,” said Sanjeev Mohan, Principal, SanjMo. “With a modern data platform fine-tuned for the performance and scale AI requires, VAST Data is well-positioned to capture a massive opportunity.”

Additional Resources:

• BLOG: A New Value, by Jeff Denworth, co-founder at VAST Data

About VAST Data:
VAST Data is the data platform company built for the AI era. As the new standard for enterprise AI infrastructure, organizations trust the VAST Data Platform to serve their most data-intensive computing needs. VAST Data empowers enterprises to unlock the full potential of their data by providing AI infrastructure that is simple, scalable, and architected from the ground up to power deep learning and GPU-accelerated data centers and clouds. Launched in 2019, VAST Data is the fastest growing data infrastructure company in history. For more information, please visit https://vastdata.com and follow VAST Data on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Austin Weedfall
VAST Data
press@vastdata.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8990742

New research published in Nature Represents a Giant Leap Forward for the Development of Scalable and Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computers

BOSTON, Dec. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — QuEra Computing, the leader in neutral-atom quantum computers, today announced a significant breakthrough published in the scientific journal Nature. In experiments led by Harvard University in close collaboration with QuEra Computing, MIT, and NIST/UMD, researchers successfully executed large-scale algorithms on an error-corrected quantum computer with 48 logical qubits and hundreds of entangling logical operations. This advancement, a significant leap in quantum computing, sets the stage for developing truly scalable and fault-tolerant quantum computers that could solve practical classically intractable problems. The complete paper can be accessed on Nature at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06927-3.

“We at Moody’s Analytics recognize the monumental significance of achieving 48 logical qubits in a fault-tolerant quantum computing environment and its potential to revolutionize data analytics and financial simulations,” said Sergio Gago, Managing Director of Quantum and AI at Moody’s Analytics, “This brings us closer to a future where quantum computing is not just an experimental endeavor but a practical tool that can deliver real-world solutions for our clients. This pivotal moment could redefine how industries approach complex computational challenges.”

A critical challenge preventing quantum computing from reaching its enormous potential is the noise that affects qubits, corrupting computations before reaching the desired results. Quantum error correction overcomes these limitations by creating “logical qubits,” groups of physical qubits that are entangled to store information redundantly. This redundancy allows for identifying and correcting errors that may occur during quantum computations. By using logical qubits instead of individual physical qubits, quantum systems can achieve a level of fault tolerance, making them more robust and reliable for complex computations.

“This is a truly exciting time in our field as the fundamental ideas of quantum error correction and fault tolerance are starting to bear fruit,” said Mikhail Lukin, the Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor, co-director of the Harvard Quantum Initiative, and co-founder of QuEra Computing. “This work, leveraging the outstanding recent progress in the neutral-atom quantum computing community, is a testament to the incredible effort of exceptionally talented students and postdocs as well as our remarkable collaborators at QuEra, MIT, and NIST/UMD. Although we are clear-eyed about the challenges ahead, we expect that this new advance will greatly accelerate the progress towards large-scale, useful quantum computers, enabling the next phase of discovery and innovation.”

Previous demonstrations of error correction have showcased one, two, or three logical qubits. This new work demonstrates quantum error correction in 48 logical qubits, enhancing computational stability and reliability while addressing the error problem. On the path to large-scale quantum computation, Harvard, QuEra, and the collaborators reported the following critical achievements:

• Creation and entanglement of the largest logical qubits to date, demonstrating a code distance of 7, enabling the detection and correction of arbitrary errors occurring during the entangling logical gate operations. Larger code distances imply higher resistance to quantum errors. Furthermore, the research showed for the first time that increasing the code distance indeed reduces the error rate in logical operations.
• Realization of 48 small logical qubits that were used to execute complex algorithms, surpassing the performance of the same algorithms when executed with physical qubits.
• Construction of 40 medium-sized error-correcting codes by controlling 280 physical qubits.

The breakthrough utilized an advanced neutral-atom system quantum computer, combining hundreds of qubits, high two-qubit gate fidelities, arbitrary connectivity, fully programmable single-qubit rotations, and mid-circuit readout.

The system also included hardware-efficient control in reconfigurable neutral-atom arrays, employing direct, parallel control over an entire group of logical qubits. This parallel control dramatically reduces the control overhead and complexity of performing logical operations. While using as many as 280 physical qubits, researchers needed to program fewer than ten control signals to execute all of the required operations in the study. Other quantum modalities typically require hundreds of control signals for the same number of qubits. As quantum computers scale to many thousands of qubits, efficient control becomes critically important.

“The achievement of 48 logical qubits with high fault tolerance is a watershed moment in the quantum computing industry,” said Matt Langione, Partner at the Boston Consulting Group. “This breakthrough not only accelerates the timeline for practical quantum applications but also opens up new avenues for solving problems that were previously considered intractable by classical computing methods. It’s a game-changer that significantly elevates the commercial viability of quantum computing. Businesses across sectors should take note, as the race to quantum advantage just got a major boost.”

“Today marks a historic milestone for QuEra and the broader quantum computing community,” said Alex Keesling, CEO, QuEra Computing, “These achievements are the culmination of a multi-year effort, led by our Harvard and MIT academic collaborators together with QuEra scientists and engineers, to push the boundaries of what’s possible in quantum computing. This isn’t just a technological leap; it’s a testament to the power of collaboration and investment in pioneering research. We’re thrilled to set the stage for a new era of scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computing that can tackle some of the world’s most complex problems. The future of quantum is here, and QuEra is proud to be at the forefront of this revolution.”

“Our experience in manufacturing and operating quantum computers – such as our first-generation machine available on a public cloud since 2022 – coupled with this groundbreaking research, puts us in a prime position to lead the quantum revolution,” added Keesling.

The work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency through the Optimization with Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices (ONISQ) program, the National Science Foundation, the Center for Ultracold Atoms (an NSF Physics Frontiers Center), and the Army Research Office.

QuEra also announced a special event on Jan 9th at 11:30 AM ET, where QuEra will reveal its commercial roadmap for fault-tolerant quantum computers. Register for this online event at https://quera.link/roadmap

About QuEra
QuEra Computing is the leader in commercializing quantum computers using neutral atoms, which is widely recognized as a highly promising quantum modality. Based in Boston and built on pioneering research from nearby Harvard University and MIT, QuEra operates the world’s largest publicly accessible quantum computer, available over a major public cloud and for on-premises delivery. QuEra is developing large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers to tackle classically intractable problems, becoming the partner of choice in the quantum field. Simply put, QuEra is the best way to quantum. For more information, visit us at quera.com and follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Media Contact
Merrill Freund
press@quera.com
+1-415-577-8637

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8990260

Ten international funding agencies will contribute to the construction of the gigantic particle detectors a mile underground for the Fermilab-hosted Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

Batavia, Illinois, Dec. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment — also known as DUNE — is an international mega science experiment that will use enormous particle detectors to study the behavior of neutrinos, which might indicate why we live in a matter-dominated universe.

The DUNE collaboration, representing scientists from dozens of countries around the world, will contribute to the construction of detectors at two sites in the United States: one at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the host lab for DUNE, 40 miles west of Chicago, and the other at the Sanford Underground Research Laboratory (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota.

On Nov. 17, representatives of funding agencies from five countries signed a memorandum of understanding, affirming their commitment to contribute to the construction of components for DUNE. Director Lia Merminga signed on behalf of Fermilab.

“DUNE will help answer some of the biggest questions in the universe and has the potential to transform the field of neutrino physics. We are proud to host DUNE in the U.S. with major contributions from the project’s international partners who offer their unique expertise,” said Regina Rameika, DOE associate director for the Office of High Energy Physics. “Having the commitment from our international partners to contribute these vital components is an essential aspect of DUNE.”

With their signatures, University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil, Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3), France, Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy, University of Bern, Switzerland, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council/United Kingdom Research and Innovation (STFC/UKRI), United Kingdom, committed to contributing hardware to the two DUNE Far Detectors in South Dakota.

The Canadian Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund and the Ontario Research Fund in Canada in addition to CERN in Switzerland also signed the memorandum of understanding remotely and will contribute to the DUNE Near Detector in Batavia, Illinois.

Signatures from agencies in the Czech Republic and Spain have been coordinated and will be finalized in the future.

In the memorandum of understanding for Far Detector 1, the United Kingdom and CERN agreed to contribute to anode plane assemblies; Brazil, the Czech Republic, Italy and Spain will contribute to the photon detection system; CERN will contribute to the high-voltage system; Canada, CERN and the U.K. will contribute to the data acquisition system; and Spain will contribute to the calibration and cryogenics instrumentation.

In the memorandum of understanding for Far Detector 2, CERN and France agreed to contribute to top drift electronics; Brazil, the Czech Republic, France, Italy and Spain will contribute to the photon detection system; France and CERN will contribute to the high-voltage system; Canada, CERN and the U.K. will contribute to the data acquisition system; Spain will contribute to the calibration and cryogenics instrumentation; and CERN and France will contribute to the charge readout planes.

Scientists and engineers from more than 35 countries are partnering with Fermilab to design, build and analyze data from DUNE, which will be installed in the new Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility. Construction of LBNF has begun, and the excavation of the large caverns in Lead, South Dakota for the DUNE Far Detectors is more than 85% complete.

The DUNE collaboration comprises more than 1,400 scientists and engineers from over 200 research institutions. Notably, CERN’s commitment to LBNF and DUNE represents its first investment in infrastructure for a physics experiment outside of Europe. Several countries — France, India, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom — also are making significant contributions to the Proton Improvement Plan II project, which includes the construction of the 215-meter-long superconducting particle accelerator at Fermilab that will power DUNE.

DUNE will be the world’s most comprehensive experiment to study neutrinos: tiny, lightweight particles that permeate the universe but rarely interact with anything. DUNE will seek to determine whether neutrinos could be the reason the universe is made of matter; look for neutrinos emitted from exploding stars to learn more about the formation of neutron stars and black holes; and watch for a rare subatomic phenomenon that could elucidate the unification of nature’s forces.

To pursue these science goals, DUNE will study neutrino oscillation, a phenomenon in which a neutrino’s property, called flavor, changes as it travels. DUNE will probe this oscillation by shooting a beam of neutrinos 1,300 kilometers straight through the earth, from Fermilab’s accelerator complex in Illinois, through the Near Detector to the Far Detectors located a mile underground at SURF in South Dakota.

The science of DUNE is a global endeavor, and the partnership with funding agencies, scientists and engineers from around the world makes it the first truly international mega science experiment to be hosted on U.S. soil. Additionally, hundreds of students from all corners of the earth will start their careers in science, engineering and computing on this project.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

Attachment

• Nov. 17 signing event at Fermilab

Tracy Marc
Fermilab
2242907803
TRACYM@FNAL.GOV

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8990708

Researchers from the Politecnico di Milano and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice are part of the team unravelling the causes of the degradation of cadmium yellow, used by the Spanish painter: the presence of zinc in the crystalline matrix of the pigment, the production process and the environmental conditions in which paint was stored. The research is published in the scientific journal Heritage Science.

Catalan surrealist painter Joan Miró

In the photo published in this article, dated 1978, the renowned Catalan surrealist painter Joan Miró is seated in his Taller Sert, surrounded by his painting

MILAN, Italy, Dec. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A photo from 1978 shows famous Catalan surrealist painter Juan Miró in his Taller Sert, surrounded by his paintings. In the background, the bright, intense yellow of Femme dans le rue (1973), stands out. Fifty years later, that cadmium-based yellow is faded and chalky. The same phenomenon has affected 25 other paintings in the Fundació Miró Mallorca.

The degraded yellow paint used by Mirò is made from cadmium yellow, a modern pigment composed of cadmium sulfide and introduced in the late 19th century. The pigment was used extensively by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, who appreciated its brilliance and full-bodied tone. As discovered in recent years, however, this pigment can become unstable, leading to a deterioration of the paint, as in the case of important artworks such as Edward Munch’s The Scream.

The research conducted so far has provided an understanding of the degradation process, but has not completely clarified the latter’s triggering factors. Furthermore, degradation is more evident in paintings dated between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, at a time when the methods for synthesising cadmium yellow pigment had not yet been perfected, while Miró’s works were painted in the 1970s, i.e. in a much later period.

The Fundació Miró Mallorca collection therefore represents a unique case study for understanding the deterioration of this particular paint at a later stage in the history of cadmium yellow pigment production.

To shed light on the issue, the conservators turned to restorer Mar Gomez Lobon, who assembled an international team that included Italian scientists Daniela Comelli and Marta Ghirardello from the Politecnico di Milano and Francesca Caterina Izzo from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

The researchers and their colleagues analysed nine samples taken from the artist’s paintings, paint tubes, and palettes, and used a multi-analytical approach: electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence at the Grenoble synchrotron, infrared spectroscopy, micro photoluminescence and chromatographic analysis.

The paint’s chemical composition and the crystalline structure of the pigments are the clues that lead the research team to argue that the degraded cadmium yellow came from paint tubes produced by the French brand Lucien Lefebvre-Foinet, a favourite of Miró’s. Over a hundred tubes of this brand were found in his studios, including five of Cadmium Yellow Lime No.1, unrecognisable today. This was certainly not a cheap product: the Parisian house produced high quality colours that artists such as Mondrian, Matisse and Giacometti used.

“Its low crystallinity exposes the pigment to high photo-chemical reactivity. This is one of the main causes of the paint’s vulnerability and can be traced back to the method by which the pigment was synthesised. Such method is, however, unknown, and no historical sources have yet been found,” explains Daniela Comelli from the Physics Department of the Politecnico di Milano.

Finally, storage and environmental conditions strongly contributed to the material’s chemical and physical transformation. Samples with the same chemical composition show different levels of degradation, and the best-preserved colour comes from a palette that had remained locked in a drawer for 32 years, protected from light and changes in humidity.

“The preservation of Miró’s and other artists’ cadmium yellow requires control over environmental parameters such as exposure to light and relative humidity,” explains Francesca Caterina Izzo of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. “When painted surfaces are severely degraded and therefore fragile, glazing with UV-filtering glass may help, while solutions involving the application of protective coatings, varnishes or consolidants require further study.

The research, published in the scientific journal Heritage Science, was conducted by restorer Mar Gomez Lobon together with Marta Ghirardello and Daniela Comelli of the Politecnico di Milano, Enric Juncosa Darder of the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Mallorca, Carlos Palomino Cabello and Marta Bauza of the Universitat de les Illes Balears, Marine Cotte of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Austin Nevin, Aviva Burnstock and Silvia Rita Amato of The Courtauld Institute of Art, and Francesca Caterina Izzo of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

Research into Miró’s “mystery” yellow will continue with research on other colours of the Lucien Lefebvre-Foinet brand and on paintings containing cadmium yellow that were stored in similar conditions but do not show the same signs of decay.

Full scientific article on: https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-023-00987-4

For more information:
Press Office LaPresse – ufficio.stampa@lapresse.it

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1fe4ce23-1e45-46af-bb11-1b028f8ec650

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8990671