Tech companies nowadays are very keen on the idea of open sourcing. Just last time, we wrote about Apple open sourcing their Swift programming language. This time, Facebook is open sourcing their Artificial Intelligence hardware. The social network is releasing their designs of a powerful new computer server they have crafted for free. The said server has been crafted to help put more power behind AI software.

Facebook AI Research Group Engineering Director Serkan Piantino said that the new servers are 2x faster than what the social media has used before. Because of this, there is greater chance to discover more in machine learning and AI.

Recently the public has been treated to news of tech companies announcing that they are open sourcing their own AI technology. This trend is seen as a way to speed up the progress of the said technology into a broader field. Aside from helping to widen AI's horizon, this also helps the tech companies to make key hires and boost their reputations.

Among the companies that made announcements include Google, Microsoft, and IBM. It can be recalled that just last month Google has unveiled their TensorFlow software that is used to power their company's image search and speech recognition.

Three days later, Microsoft followed suit with the released of their own software which allows the distributing of machine learning across multiple devices to make it more powerful. These announcements were followed by IBM's announcement of their open source SystemML finally coming to life.

Facebook's new server design is called "Big Sur." It was created to power deep learning software which is used to process data using simulated neurons. For their new server design, the social network has worked closely with leading GPU manufacturer Nvidia. The servers are said to be stripped down to be able to cram in more chips. It can also be used to run Google's TensorFlow.

The social media's server design will be submitted by the company to the Open Compute Project, the group they have started, where companies like Apple and Microsoft share their designs of computing infrastructures to help make the cost go down.