Saving Energy with Supercomputing

By David Craddock, High Performance Computing Wales

December 2, 2013

Many Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the UK and beyond are unaware that supercomputing can help them become more energy efficient.

With major energy suppliers recently announcing yet more price hikes, companies across all industries are feeling the pinch.

Three of the ‘big six’ British energy firms have increased their prices between eight and ten per cent on last year’s costs, and this rise could have a profound effect on the performance of SMEs across the country and beyond.

In addition, in our digital age, it is only a natural progression for businesses to increasingly boost their performance by using advanced software for data-intensive tasks such as advanced modeling and simulation, analysis of Big Data and the rendering of high-definition 3D graphics.

However, with the additional computational power, time and energy required to complete these demanding tasks, many businesses require further support to meet their customers‘ needs, and to help reduce their carbon footprint.

Many SMEs are unaware that this support could arrive in the form of supercomputing, also known as high performance computing. Often the belief is that access to supercomputing technology is limited to only the largest companies with the biggest spending power.

Although traditionally the preserve of blue chip companies and academia, SMEs can now benefit from access to supercomputing technology, training and support. The technology can significantly boost their output, while increasing their in-house energy efficiency.

So how can supercomputing help businesses achieve this?

Significant time savings

With the power of supercomputing, businesses can vastly reduce the time they spend on demanding data-intensive tasks, significantly reducing their power consumption.

One SME that has benefited from supercomputing support is Wales-based ThinkPlay.TV, an animation company founded in 2006. To date, its virtual animation work and media sets have featured on the likes of Playstation, Wii and Xbox games consoles and national UK television channels.

Typically, before the company used supercomputing, scenery would take eight hours for them to render in-house, giving them a maximum of two weeks to meet client deadlines. Furthermore, with only two desktops carrying out rendering for large periods of time, the co-founders were both unable to work on anything else.

Now, with the use of supercomputing technology, projects that would normally have taken days to complete, are finished in hours.

As work can be completed so much faster, it has helped the firm win bids for more projects, as well as significantly reducing the energy that it spends on in-house computing processes.

Remote access

Accessing supercomputing technology remotely can save businesses energy in a number of ways.

Firstly, they do not have to travel to access a supercomputing hub. This in itself presents energy savings to businesses. In addition, with remote access technology, businesses can benefit from high performance computing on their own desktop and laptop computers, without the need to continually update in-house technology.

As supercomputing dramatically increases the speed of computing processes, this will then free-up other on-site IT resources. Therefore, using supercomputing boosts companies’ overall IT capacity because all data and power intensive processing is taken off site. Doing so will also help to reduce business’ overall onsite energy consumption.

Remote access to high performance computing can also be provided ‘on demand’, so companies’ use is efficient and timely, and therefore energy and resources are not wasted on ‘idling time’ from machines.

A company directly benefiting from this remote access to supercomputing technology is Calon Cardio-Technology Ltd. The company is designing and developing the next generation of affordable, implantable micro blood pumps for the treatment of chronic heart failure.

Calon Cardio uses supercomputing to simulate the flow of the blood inside the pump. Prior to using supercomputing running just one case could take up to a week, whereas now that process can be shrunk to less than a day, or even a few hours.

Green data centre management

When considering a potential supercomputing provider, businesses should ensure that the supplier has invested in dedicated Data Centre Infrastructure Management software or DCIM. This allows providers to balance computing capacity, or power drawn, with the current IT load at the time. This means that when the load is low, providers can switch hardware into ‘low activity’ or ‘standby’ modes to save energy and its associated costs.

Companies should also be sure to confirm whether a provider’s servers are designed to automatically go into ‘idle’ or ‘deep sleep’ modes during longer periods of inactivity.

Ensuring that suppliers have engaged with these critical energy-saving facilities will help to ensure that savings are passed on to businesses, but also ensures that their carbon footprints remain as small as possible.

Final thoughts

It’s clear to see that supercomputing has a valuable role to play in boosting the competitive capability and energy efficiency of SMEs in a wide range of sectors. The UK Government’s current investment is testament to its perceived value to the future of British business.

This is down to the fact that supercomputing can reduce the time taken to complete data-intensive tasks, freeing up business’ IT systems to allow them to complete other tasks more easily.

This significant reduction in time-taken to complete tasks also results in increased energy-efficiency for SMEs, allowing them to reinvest this time and money into other aspects of service delivery for their customers.

Furthermore, by using a supercomputing provider that is already committed to saving energy, companies can also feel safe in the knowledge that their own commitments to green business practice remain intact.

How can businesses find out more about using supercomputing technology?

Whilst purchasing a dedicated supercomputer is clearly out of most small companies’ reach, there are now a number of providers in the UK offering companies access to supercomputing technology, training and support.

Supercomputing providers across the UK are increasing the level of support available, as they recognise that many businesses have no experience of using this technology. This means businesses don’t need any previous experience of supercomputing to enjoy its benefits.

About the Author

David Craddock is chief executive officer of HPC Wales. Prior to his appointment, David Craddock was Director of Enterprise and Collaborative Projects at Aberystwyth University, responsible for leading a team of over thirty and developing the enterprise strategy for the University. Working with the senior management team, David also led a number of change management programmes including business planning for the Aberystwyth/Bangor Partnership, and the merger of the BBSRC research funded institute IGER into the University. A BA (Hons) graduate from Middlesex University, David previously worked for two Unilever companies over a 23 year period, mainly in international marketing, product development and business development roles in the detergent and speciality chemicals markets. In addition, he has been Director of two SMEs in the technical textile and electrical engineering markets.

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion XL — were added to the benchmark suite as MLPerf continues Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing power it brings to artificial intelligence.  Nvidia's DGX Read more…

Call for Participation in Workshop on Potential NSF CISE Quantum Initiative

March 26, 2024

Editor’s Note: Next month there will be a workshop to discuss what a quantum initiative led by NSF’s Computer, Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate could entail. The details are posted below in a Ca Read more…

Waseda U. Researchers Reports New Quantum Algorithm for Speeding Optimization

March 25, 2024

Optimization problems cover a wide range of applications and are often cited as good candidates for quantum computing. However, the execution time for constrained combinatorial optimization applications on quantum device Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at the network layer threatens to make bigger and brawnier pro Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HBM3E memory as well as the the ability to train 1 trillion pa Read more…

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing po Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HB Read more…

Nvidia Looks to Accelerate GenAI Adoption with NIM

March 19, 2024

Today at the GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia launched a new offering aimed at helping customers quickly deploy their generative AI applications in a secure, s Read more…

The Generative AI Future Is Now, Nvidia’s Huang Says

March 19, 2024

We are in the early days of a transformative shift in how business gets done thanks to the advent of generative AI, according to Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, codenamed Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

Intel Won’t Have a Xeon Max Chip with New Emerald Rapids CPU

December 14, 2023

As expected, Intel officially announced its 5th generation Xeon server chips codenamed Emerald Rapids at an event in New York City, where the focus was really o Read more…

IBM Quantum Summit: Two New QPUs, Upgraded Qiskit, 10-year Roadmap and More

December 4, 2023

IBM kicks off its annual Quantum Summit today and will announce a broad range of advances including its much-anticipated 1121-qubit Condor QPU, a smaller 133-qu Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire