Comments on: Trying To Do More Real HPC In An Increasingly AI World https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/11/20/trying-to-do-more-real-hpc-in-an-increasingly-ai-world/ In-depth coverage of high-end computing at large enterprises, supercomputing centers, hyperscale data centers, and public clouds. Thu, 15 Aug 2024 02:33:30 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 By: Timothy Prickett Morgan https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/11/20/trying-to-do-more-real-hpc-in-an-increasingly-ai-world/#comment-216592 Tue, 21 Nov 2023 13:38:06 +0000 https://www.nextplatform.com/?p=143289#comment-216592 In reply to Eric Olson.

If HPC made money–literally, not as a third order derivative–there would be a Fourier Transform Engine that could handle dense matrix math better at the heart of an Nvidia GPU. It is because HPC is perceived as a cost, not as an actual revenue generator, that it does not see more investment and specialized iron. It is because HPC is expensive and difficult that it is not more pervasive, and that has limited its market appeal and market size. We have been talking about the missing middle in HPC and democratizing HPC to try to encourage people for decades. Has it really worked?

Does any company need to be convinced that they need a generative AI story any more than they needed a Web story 25 years ago?

That said, I don’t think HPC work will go away, and I personally wish we would do more investment and solve big problems quicker for the sake of society.

]]> By: Eric Olson https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/11/20/trying-to-do-more-real-hpc-in-an-increasingly-ai-world/#comment-216566 Tue, 21 Nov 2023 01:06:36 +0000 https://www.nextplatform.com/?p=143289#comment-216566 Not long ago there was a GPU shortage because of crypto currencies. That didn’t last very long. Now the shortage is because people are training neural networks. I wonder if that will be a lasting use for GPUs or not.

One thing is likely: The type of calculations HPC focuses on were there before generative AI or block chains and that type of science will be useful in the future.

]]> By: Slim Albert https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/11/20/trying-to-do-more-real-hpc-in-an-increasingly-ai-world/#comment-216564 Tue, 21 Nov 2023 00:44:18 +0000 https://www.nextplatform.com/?p=143289#comment-216564 Interesting perspective on the tradeoffs between HPC- and AI-oriented supercomputer design! It’s good to see the new SuperMUC-NG Phase 2 (a kind of mini-Aurora?) having nearly the same HPL perf as the previous SuperMUC-NG (Phase 1), but with half the total cores thanks to the Ponte Vecchio GPUs. It is also presumably better able to cross the HPC-AI barrier, in both directions!

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