Intel Stratix 10: Capable of 10 Trillion Calculations per Second

(Editor's Note: Intel says the Stratix 10 contains some 30 billion transistors - and they say that's more than triple the amount in CPUs that run in the fastest desktop processors today. They're really the ones to know it, since Intel has decided to cut on disclosing transistor count on its CPUs for some time now. The amount of data these FPGAs can process in a single second is nothing short of mind-blowing, though: Intel says they can process the data equivalent to 420 Blu-ray Discs... in just one second. If that doesn't spell an unimaginable future in terms of processing power, I don't know what does.)

Because of the Intel Stratix 10's unique design, it can whip through calculations at blinding speeds - often 10 to 100 times faster than the chips in consumer devices. Intel Stratix 10 FPGAs - the latest version came out in February - are capable of 10 TFLOPS, or 10 trillion floating point operations per second. The Stratix 10 is the fastest chip of its kind in the world.

FPGAs, or field programmable gate arrays, are a special class of computer chip that is surging in importance with the rise of applications like speech-recognition, artificial intelligence, next-generation wireless networks, advanced search engines and high-performance computing. Unlike traditional central processing units (CPUs) that power today's laptops and desktops, FPGAs can be customized - or reprogrammed remotely and on the fly - to perform highly specialized computing tas