Microsoft Corp. is trying to build up some excitement ahead of its annual Build developers conference, launching several new tools and services designed to help software makers use artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies more easily.

Build takes place next week in Seattle, and the company intends to use the event to demonstrate the capabilities of its cloud-based software and computing services, which are increasingly becoming its main revenue driver. Today’s announcements are meant to show how Microsoft Azure is the best cloud platform for AI, blockchain and edge computing, the company said.

First up, Microsoft is making its Project Brainwave hardware-accelerated models running on field-programmable gate arrays generally available. Announced last year as a preview, Project Brainwave’s Azure Machine Learning Hardware Accelerated Models are designed to accelerate the training of AI models. The company is also announcing a preview of those models for edge devices, partnering with Dell Technologies Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co.

Sticking with AI, the company is also adding support for the ONNX Runtime on Nvidia Corp. TensorRT and Intel Corp. nGraph processors running on Azure. The ONNX Runtime is a high-performance inference engine for machine learning models in the ONNX format on Linux, Windows and Mac.

The Azure Machine Learning Service also gets an update, with features designed to help make high-quality machine learning models more easily. The new features include a new visual interface that enables nondevelopers to create models using a “no-code” approach, the company said.

Cognitive Services is another area of focus. Microsoft is adding new application programming interfaces under the “Decision” category that include its Anomaly Detector API, Content Moderator API and Personalizer API. The new APIs are all about adding more decision-making capabilities to software apps, Microsoft said.

Blockchain gets real

Moving into another hot area, Microsoft is also stepping up its blockchain game with the launch of Azure Blockchain Services. This is a fully managed service for companies that want to build and maintain their own distributed ledgers and build applications atop of them.

Azure Blockchain Services is said to integrate with Azure Active Directory for enabling permissions and monitoring network activity and health. Microsoft said its first supported ledger is JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Quorum, which is an enterprise-focused version of Ethereum designed for applications that require high-speed and high-throughput processing of private transactions.

“Because it’s built on the popular Ethereum protocol, which has the world’s largest blockchain developer community, Quorum is a natural choice,” Azure Chief Technology Officer Mark Russinovich said in a statement. “It integrates with a rich set of open-source tools while also supporting confidential transactions — something our enterprise customers require.”

Azure Blockchain Services is said to integrate with Visual Studio Code so companies can create smart contracts and deploy these on their blockchains, with the code being managed via Azure DevOps. Additional integrations with Flow and Logic Apps make it easier to build apps for these smart contracts.

Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE that Azure Blockchain Services was an important milestone for Microsoft as the distributed ledger technology is a key enabler of next-generation applications.

“A blockchain-powered app is pretty much always a new writer, and enterprises look at the cloud to power them,” Mueller said. “And so cloud providers are doing all they can to make the creation and operation of blockchain apps as easy as possible.”

Moving closer to the edge

Another big area of focus for Microsoft is the so-called “internet of things” and edge computing. The big play here is a new service called Azure SQL Database Edge, which is a version of the Azure SQL Database that runs on ARM and x64 devices at the edge of a network. The service is currently in preview and can be accessed via the Azure Early Adopter Program.

In addition, there’s a new IoT Plug and Play service, which is an open modeling language that’s meant to help connect IoT devices in the cloud more easily.

Finally, Microsoft said its releasing a developer edition of its HoloLens 2 headset that was announced earlier this year. The device, which overlays digital information on the real world, is priced at $3,500 and could be used for things such as safety training and complex repair work, Microsoft said.

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