NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference circuit are calender fixtures of the AI and machine learning industry where experts come together under one tent to discuss the latest industry breakthroughs, both hardware and software. The schedule for this week's event is packed with seminars and workshops discussing diverse topics from Language Data Modelling to Hybrid CPU/GPU rendering with KarmaXPU, touching on all the capabilities of highly parallel graphics processors, but a highlight for professionals and laymen alike will be the March 22nd Keynote Address helmed by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.

Jensen typically reserves his presence for Keynotes where major new NVIDIA technologies are introduced, so it wouldn't be all that surprising if their next-generation architecture made its debut tomorrow. Ampere was unveiled at GTC in May of 2020 and Turing in August 2018, so you could say we're almost due a announcement of this nature.

The blog post 'Hopped Up: NVIDIA CEO, AI Leaders to Discuss Next Wave of AI at GTC' adds a little more detail about what we can expect from the Keynote and event as a whole, covering some of the industry luminaries who will be present and the theme or focus of discussion panels (in this instance, AI startups and training). With the Academy Awards coming up on March 27th you can also expect to hear from those behind the magic of the movies as they relate how accelerated computing boosts the quality of modern-day productions.

In fact, that blog post title may itself be a reference to the new architecture NVIDIA are preparing. 'Hopper', named for computer science pioneer Admiral Grace Hopper, has long be rumoured as the name for NVIDIA's upcoming professional graphics architecture; it remains to be seen however if NVIDIA seek to bifurcate consumer and professional GPU architecture development as some have speculated. Either way, it is likely that the announcement of a next-gen consumer GPU is some way off.

You can tune into the Keynote Livestream without registering for GTC and the broadcast will be available on demand once it ends. It starts at 3pm UK Time (8am Pacific, 4pm CET) on March 22nd.