Edge computing

Satellites, which launched on board a Long March 2D rocket from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center May 14, are part of a plan to lower China's dependence on ground-based computers.

Instead, the satellites will use the cold vacuum of space as a natural cooling system while they crunch data with a combined computing capacity of 1,000 peta (1 quintillion) operations per second, according to the Chinese government.

"It's a good time to think about how we can put AI into space, not just in your laptop or cellphone," Wang Jian, director of Zhejiang Lab, said at the Beyond Expo tech conference in Macau Wednesday (May 21), the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. 


Companies have begun designing satellites capable of "edge computing," where raw data is processed on board the satellite before being transmitted down to the ground. 

Doing these energy-intensive computations in orbit also allows the satellites' power to be drawn from solar panels and their waste heat radiated into space, thereby lowering their carbon footprint.

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