@HPC Podcast Archives - OrionX.net - HPC News Bytes – 20231106

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

- UK Summit on AI, AI Supercomputers in the UK - US Presidential Executive Order on AI - Peter Ungaro on full episode of @HPCpodcast - Intersect360 Market Update [audio mp3="https://orionx.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/HPCNB_20231106.mp3"][/audio] The post HPC News Bytes – 20231106 appeared first on OrionX.net.

Welcome to HPC News Bites, a weekly show about important news in the world of supercomputing, AI, and other advanced technologies. Hi, everyone. Welcome to HPC News Bites. I'm Doug Black. Hey, Shaheen. This past week saw the UK announce two AI supercomputers, a Dell Intel system at the University of Cambridge, and a 300 million pound sterling HPE NVIDIA system at the University of Bristol. These are part of the UK's AI research

resource, AIRR, that the country is building out. Intel gave only very general information on their system for the time being, saying it will approach exascale class power. HPE and NVIDIA said their system at Cambridge will deliver 21 exaflops of AI performance. The UK has a lot of significant strengths that it can and should project. This week was the UK's summit on AI, and this news was well-timed for it. The big system is in Bristol, and the Cambridge system made it more than just one single system in Bristol and rounded it up. As you all know, I see AI as an emerging mega app that requires HPC infrastructure, HPC algorithms, and skills. So I see all such news as endorsement of the importance of HPC. Separate news, a legal framework for AI has been a serious

need for the past many years. It requires an ethical framework and necessary policies. It is tough, and especially tough when the technology is moving fast, but governments are designed to go slow. So under the banner of safety, security, and trust, and a few days before the UK summit, President Biden issued an executive order on AI. I believe the tough challenge is to mitigate the well-documented disruptive impact of AI while maintaining global leadership and competitiveness, which means without slowing progress. I see this as a good way to accelerate that process by putting a stake in the ground and causing iterations to happen. Yeah. And it was interesting that the executive order spurred an opinion piece in the

Wall Street Journal from the American Enterprise Institute, not usually a friend of Democrats, that praised the EO in the area of national security. The EO mandates that AI organizations check their models for national security vulnerabilities, including assembling red teams of experts to try to make their AIs do dangerous things. And then the teams will come up with ways to stop those threats. Quote from the article, this isn't a mere bureaucratic exercise. It is a clarion call for a new era of responsibility. Now, Sheen, from the shameless plug department, we urge everyone to listen to the recent At HPC podcast episode that we did with Pete Ungaro, one of the wise heads of HPC, who for the past 30 years has been at the center of the action at IBM as CEO of Cray,

and then as senior vice president of everything to do with advanced computing at HPE after the Cray acquisition in 2019. I think it was one of the best podcasts we've done. What say you? Definitely. And it was such a treat to have, Pete. As you all know, I consider it a privilege to represent you, our audience, and bring you into the virtual coffee shop, as we say, in which these conversations take place.

And it's a privilege to cover advanced tech and emerging markets and complex policies with the caliber of guests who have really generously given us their time and insights. I'm really proud of that. So with SC23 approaching, it is the season to take stock of the HPC market. That market is rapidly including AI and quantum computing. Market sizing is complicated, but a real necessity. Hyperion Research and Intersect 360 usually publish their findings before SC and ISC. IDC and Gartner seem to be back at it too with slightly different focus and methodologies. This week, Intersect 360 came out with its market update based on a survey of 163, if I recall correctly, qualified respondents. A survey is like a blood exam since it looks at a small subset of

the market, which nevertheless needs to be representative to provide a good snapshot. I know Intersect 360 pays a lot of attention to ensuring good quality, so the data is very good and significant. Yeah. Among their findings is the emergence of NVIDIA as a top HPC-AI systems vendor. They put them in fourth place with their DGX systems behind Dell, HPE, and Supermicro, and one spot ahead of Lenovo. As for CPUs in these systems, they said AMD is gaining on Intel to the point where Intel could fall below 50% market share in the not too distant future. On the GPU side, NVIDIA dominates now with 87%, though, according to Intersect 360, falling to 80% in the future as AMD and Intel GPUs come to market

and gain maturity. Okay, that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for being with us.