Nvidia Focuses Its Cloud Containers on HPC Applications

By George Leopold

November 14, 2017

Having migrated its top-of-the-line datacenter GPU to the largest cloud vendors, Nvidia is touting its Volta architecture for a range of scientific computing tasks as well as AI development with the addition of a container registry designed to deploy its GPU cloud for everything from visualization to drug discovery.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, SC17 in Denver

In its drive to expand access to its Volta architecture, Nvidia announced the availability of its Tesla V100 GPU on Microsoft Azure. Azure is the latest cloud service to join the chipmaker’s growing list of public and private cloud services providers along server makers. Most are offering the “GPU accelerated” services for AI development projects such as training deep learning models that require more processing cores and access to big data.

Moving beyond the AI market, Nvidia on Monday (Nov. 13) unveiled a container registry designed to ease deployment of HPC applications in the cloud. The container registry for scientific computing applications and visualization tools would connect researchers with most GPU-optimized HPC software, the company said during this week’s SC17 conference in Denver.

Last month, the company introduced deep learning applications and AI frameworks in its Nvidia GPU Cloud (NGC) container registry. The AI container registry was rolled out on Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud instances running on Tesla V100 GPUs.

The HPC application containers announced this week include a long list of third-party scientific applications. HPC visualization containers are available in beta on the GPU cloud.

As GPU processing moves wholesale to the cloud and datacenters, easing application deployment was the next logical step as Nvidia extends its reach beyond AI development to scientific computing. (The company notes that the 2017 Nobel Prize winners in chemistry and physics used it CUDA parallel computing and API model. Nvidia’s Volta architecture includes more than 5,000 CUDA cores.)

HPC containers are designed to package the libraries and dependencies needed to run scientific applications on top of container infrastructure such as Docker Engine. The cloud container registry for delivering HPC applications uses Nvidia’s Docker distribution to run visualizations and other tasks in GPU-accelerated clouds. The service is available now.

Underpinning these scientific workloads in the cloud is the Volta architecture, asserts Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. “Volta has now enabled every researcher in the world to access…the most advanced high-performance computer in the world at the lowest possible price,” Huang claimed during SC17. “You can rent yourself a supercomputer for three dollars” per hour.

The other part of the GPU equation is the software stack and how it remains optimized. Hence, Nvidia has placed software components in the GPU cloud via its container registry. The containerized software stack can then be downloaded from Nvidia’s cloud and datacenter partners.

Emphasizing Nvidia’s drive to make GPU processing more accessible, Huang concluded: “In the final analysis, it’s got to be simple.”

Nvidia also took advantage of the SC17 launch pad to announce it is building a new supercomputer to enable high-performance workflows inside its company. SaturnV with Volta continues the tradition of the DGX-1 SaturnV that the company announced last year at SC16, but swaps out the Pascal-based P100s with Volta-based V100s. Nvidia is also greatly expanding the system: from 124 nodes to 660 nodes. Once complete in early 2018, it will offer 40 petaflops of peak double-precision floating point performance, Nvidia said. An early version of the system appeared on the 50th Top500 list (revealed Monday), delivering 1.07 Linpack petaflops in 30 DGX-1 nodes, sufficient for a 149th ranking. That system, installed at Nvidia headquarters in San Jose, Calif., also secured the fourth highest spot on the Green500 listing.

“This is one of the fastest and greenest supercomputers in the world and we use it for our high-performance computing software stack development,” said Huang.

“I believe this is the future of software development,” he continued. “Until now, most of our software engineers coded on their laptop, they compiled it and ran regression tests in the datacenter. Now we have to have our own supercomputing infrastructure. I believe every single industry, every single company will eventually have to have high performance computing infrastructures, opening up the opportunity for the HPC industry.”

–Tiffany Trader contributed to this report.

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