SC23 | In the News

High-performance computing is brimming with several developments: from the artificial intelligence infusion to innovations in exascale and quantum computing.Broadcom Inc., a stalwart in ethernet networking, is at the forefront of pushing the boundaries in AI and machine learning. The company has introduced the concept of “ultra ethernet,” a term that encapsulates the integration of intelligence into networking infrastructure, according to Hemal Shah (pictured, left), distinguished engineer and system, software and standards architect at Broadcom.“At Broadcom, we have been doing ethernet networking for decades now,” he said

Texas A&M’s ACES project harnesses hardware composability for AI/ML breakthroughs

Hardware composability is proving to be a game-changer, as it tackles the issue of being bound by any one instance of a system or a particular deployment.A new project at Texas A&M University is addressing this need. ACES, which stands for Accelerating Computing for Emerging Sciences, is a pioneering computational prototype under development by the university. It seeks to address a critical challenge: providing a unified computing platform that caters to a broad spectrum of users across different research fields, each with unique levels of computing engagement

AI and HPC drive innovation amid sustainability and security challenges: theCUBE kicks off day 2 at SC23

The convergence of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, along with sustainability concerns and security challenges, are shaping the future of enterprise tech.A major part of this innovation is AI’s infusion into various industries, which promises a future that includes new opportunities.“Supercomputing is all about more horsepower, high-performance computing, which basically is infrastructure chips,” said John Furrier (pictured, right), industry analyst and theCUBE co-founder. “The theme is chips meets cloud, and everything in between is going to get innovated up and refactored

The impact of AI at scale: HPE’s role in navigating supercomputing challenges

“Doing more with less” is a trending enterprise motto, keeping artificial intelligence a key focus for businesses.When scaled, however, AI can present several challenges, including with supercomputing. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. aims to tackle this challenge, according to Joseph George (pictured, left), global vice president of strategic alliances at HPE.“I think a lot of the challenges that we’ve helped our customers address with supercomputing, some of the same concerns are starting to pop up now as they’re looking at artificial intelligence,” George explained. “The good news is a lot of these aren’t new challenges

How the future of data storage is evolving with strong GPUs and AI

The future of the storage industry lies in infrastructure that is graphics processing unit and artificial intelligence capable, with companies looking to revolutionize the market by addressing the evolving storage needs of customers with innovative data platforms.Current storage frameworks present challenges, such as practitioner gridlock, a skills gap and the need to reinvent infrastructure for AI, with no clear guidance on how to move data to AI and transform, according to Vaughn Stewart (pictured), vice president of systems engineering at Vast Data Inc

The role of high-performance computing and AI in Africa

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research is a research institution dedicated to driving the progress of technologies to improve South Africa’s socioeconomic well-being.Established by an Act of Parliament in 1945, the CSIR provides targeted research in various fields, including healthcare, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, mining and chemistry, serving the public and private sectors. Additionally, the CSIR provides cyberinfrastructure services, including high-performance computing, broadband connectivity and data management to the research community in South Africa.“You can imagine, before 2007, there were no supercomputers in the continent, so we started off with a 2

Supercomputer advancements set to supercharge AI, other emerging use cases

A focal highlight of SC23 has been the discourse around groundbreaking developments, one of which is the convergence of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.That melding has sparked a revolutionary power dynamic, promising to propel innovation while reshaping the future. Dell Technologies Inc. and the Ohio Department of Higher Education are partnering to catalyze that future.“We, as a larger state entity, are able to buy in large aggregate — happy to have four [HPC] clusters right now from Dell,” said Alan Chalker (pictured, right), program director at Ohio Supercomputer Center at the Ohio Department of Higher Education

Bridging AI, cloud and security in the HPC revolution

High-performance computing is a rapidly growing market, set to grow by about $14 billion from 2022 to 2027, with expected developments fueling continued expansion.With cloud scale and semi-conductor silicon innovations and a growing cross-disciplinary focus and new technical advancements, we’ve entered a new generation for HPC with the introduction of data, machine learning and generative artificial intelligence. Vultr, a registered trademark of The Constant Company LLC, is the world’s largest privately held cloud compute platform

Generative AI gets the Microsoft treatment, supercomputers get the AI treatment – and Sam Altman gets the boot

Microsoft is now the Copilot company, Chief Executive Satya Nadella declared this week at the company’s Ignite conference, not only spreading generative AI across its products but also announcing its first AI processor designs.The flurry of news at Ignite was just one sign of how much gen AI is getting infused into every enterprise software company’s products. But it still may take awhile to become just as widespread in enterprises themselves, thanks to a raft of challenges in implementing it effectively and safely.And not least, generative AI is providing a boost to supercomputing, as we found at the SC23 conference

The collision of AI, quantum and supercomputing: theCUBE kicks off SC23 coverage

November 14, 2023

The Supercomputing 2023 event is back, with a focus on the intersection of supercomputing, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies invigorated by the rise of generative AI models.During a special evening session at the event, theCUBE industry analysts explored the profound impact of AI on supercomputing and beyond and took a peek into the future of exascale computing and sustainability.“There’s a collision course between the semiconductors and the clouds, and everyone in between is going to be impacted,” said John Furrier (pictured, left), theCUBE industry analyst

How specialized clouds and metacloud interfaces are reshaping tech landscapes

Specialized clouds are growing, leading to the idea of a metacloud, where users can deploy to multiple clouds and pick and choose the best services.Specialty clouds differ from general purpose clouds, because they focus on a specific niche and double down on that, providing the best support for that niche, according to Johnny Dallas (pictured), founder and chief executive officer of Zeet Inc. Cloud companies are focusing on providing specialized services, and customers are increasingly using multiple cloud platforms, requiring a higher level interface to manage workloads across different clouds

At the forefront of supercomputing: How TACC is leveraging new technologies to drive innovation

The rapid adoption of automation, driven by artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies, has ushered in a wave of fresh opportunities. Organizations of all sizes across the globe are embracing automation as a means to generate significant value.Texas Advanced Computing Center is building Stampede3, an Intel-based supercomputing system with 560 new nodes and liquid cooling, according to Tommy Minyard (pictured), director of advanced computing systems at TACC. TACC operates and maintains a system to support scientific research at the University of Texas and beyond, with plans to incorporate new Intel Vecchio GPUs for experimentation

Breaking through the bottlenecks with AI and HPC innovations

High-performance computing has been redefined as the pursuit of results and problem-solving, transcending the confines of hardware and software.Meanwhile, AI has emerged as a transformative force, with applications spanning language models, voice, vision and more. It was also revealed that there is a need for resource optimization to help overcome bottlenecks and provide decision-makers with the tools and confidence to embrace AI, according to Steen Graham (pictured, right), co-founder and chief executive officer of Scalers AI Inc., an enterprise AI software company

Navigating the frontier of collaborative innovation: A glimpse into the future of high-performance computing

The potential for artificial intelligence to be the next evolutionary step for humanity is a fascinating prospect.We may look back at this time as a moment when we underestimated how rapidly we were progressing. During a day two analysis panel at SC23, a theCUBE analysts discussed how the AI journey has traversed the ever-expanding landscape of collaboration, academia and industry synergy.“If you look at what Dell and other people are doing here, this is a collaboration ecosystem that’s developing from the chips to the cloud,” said John Furrier (pictured, right), industry analyst and theCUBE co-founder

Navigating the AI and HPC resurgence: Hammerspace’s role in redefining data orchestration

Artificial intelligence and high-performance computing are becoming popular again post-COVID.Hammerspace Inc. is at the intersection of this perfect storm, which is driving demand for its services, according to the company’s CEO, David Flynn (pictured).Applications and their data used to have a one-to-one relationship with storage. Now, data from multiple applications needs to be orchestrated to run in different places for the availability of specialized hardware, requiring a shared compute infrastructure. Data orchestration is a new approach to managing data that allows for movement and access without disrupting the unified identity of the data, Flynn explained

The future of networking: How HPC is being reshaped to accommodate AI workloads

November 14, 2023

As a show primarily geared toward hardware enthusiasts, Supercomputing 2023 has already kicked off with a bang — particularly on the networking side of things.The networking landscape is evolving, and Broadcom Inc., a key player in the hardware domain, is collaborating with hyperscale customers to navigate the challenges posed by the ever-expanding artificial intelligence workloads.“What has changed the whole environment are all these LLMs — ChatGPT-3 was 175 million parameters, GPT-4 is a trillion plus parameters,” said Hasan Siraj (pictured), head of software products and ecosystem at Broadcom

Unlocking the power of data: Kalray’s collaborations are redefining data management

With artificial intelligence technologies requiring more data at a faster rate, the world of data management is growing increasingly complex. Kalray S.A. is offering one solution.“The DNA of the company is semiconductor and … the media entertainment space,” said Eric Baissus (pictured), chief executive officer at Kalray. “Our secret sauce is really to manage workflow in [a] very efficient way.”Baissus spoke with theCUBE industry analysts John Furrier and Lisa Martin at SC23, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed Kalray’s partnership with Dell Technologies Inc. and the innovations surrounding data management. (* Disclosure below

The rise of AI as the new abstraction layer in enterprise technology

The transformational impact of artificial intelligence on enterprise technology is unquestionable, but players and spectators alike are waiting to see who will harness its potential.“AI is a massive shift,” said Renu Raman (pictured), founder of Terizza, a next-generation AI-infrastructure startup. “Everything is happening all at once and everybody’s confused. At the same time, everybody sees the opportunity to do interesting things.”Raman spoke with theCUBE industry analysts John Furrier and Lisa Martin at SC23, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio

Addressing HPC’s growing resource challenge

The high-performance computing market is booming at over $35 billion in annual revenue. Fueled by the ongoing wave of new market developments, that number should soar as the decade’s end approaches.There is a lingering problem though: HPC infrastructures and operations need power and generate lots of heat. In response, companies are developing ingenious solutions to keep power consumption at sustainable levels.“One of the biggest trends that we’re seeing in the industry right now is that the power needs are going up significantly,” said Shreya Shah (pictured, left), senior product manager of AI and HPC at Dell Technologies Inc

Sycomp, IBM and Google collaborate on solution for data access from hundreds of virtual machines

One of the challenges for high-performance computing is to enable organizations to access massive amounts of data and deliver that to applications regardless of where these sit in the enterprise. This is a complicated problem to solve in the current hybrid computing world, and Sycomp, A Technology Company Inc., a global provider of data center, cloud and security services, has been working with IBM Corp. and Google LLC to find a solution.One outcome was released on Google Cloud Marketplace in March

Dell equips its HCI portfolio to handle intricate AI workloads

Because of how well they play together, the supercomputing industry is seeing a massive artificial intelligence influx. Hardware capabilities, software support and other enablers are being built up to facilitate this pairing.As AI hardware gains prominence, Dell Technologies Inc. has positioned itself as a leader in the industry, adapting swiftly to the changing dynamics, according to Bill Leslie (pictured), director of HCI technical marketing at Dell.“One of the things that we saw with VxRail when it was introduced about seven years ago is it was really about how [to] offload some of the day-to-day tasks and mundane things that take up our time,” Leslie said

Need for speed in connectivity and networking drives AI server solutions for Dell and Broadcom

When high-performance computing industry experts gathered at SC22 last year, they were greeted with the introduction of the PowerEdge XE9680, the high-end AI training platform on display from Dell Technologies Inc.One year later, Dell and its partner Broadcom Inc. are working on the next chapter for AI servers, which will address the performance of generative AI fabrics, modern architecture that automates data integration across platforms in real time. This involves being able to provide cluster-building solutions for inferencing that can overcome the connectivity bottleneck

Dell and atNorth point toward a sustainable data center future using HPC and AI

Liquid-cooled machines powering a high-performance computing and AI future could one day provide the heat for our houses.This is the core sustainable business proposition behind atNorth, a Pan-Nordic data center services company offering cost-efficient, scalable colocation and HPC solutions across Iceland, Sweden and Finland. At a data center located in Ballerup, Denmark, within the greater Copenhagen area, atNorth provides waste heat to local homes by using a streamlined technology stack

The key to affordable and accessible hardware solutions

Hardware is the backbone of software running efficiently.Nevertheless, the constrained nature of the hardware sector makes affordability and accessibility a tall order. This is why democratization is needed — so that smaller organizations and startups can experience a better onboarding process, according to Brian Beeler (pictured), editor of StorageReview.com.“You talked about democratization; I think this is so important, because I think there’s a ton of gatekeeping in this industry that I find really frustrating,” Beeler said

Sycomp tackles global data challenges with AI and cloud integration

In the ever-evolving landscape of supercomputing, new cross-field integrations, such as artificial intelligence, are forcing innovations across the stack — from storage to networking and compute.The race to optimize data management and storage solutions has become a critical focus for organizations globally, and Sycomp, A Technology Company Inc. is rising to the challenge, according to John Zawistowski (pictured, right), global systems solutions executive at Sycomp.“We’re a global organization; we’re actually in 46 countries,” he said. “We ship hardware [and] software [and] run services to about 150 countries globally

IBM creates strategic data layer to push AI innovations

In today’s computing environment, businesses must revamp their data architecture, as it’s essential not only for technological advancement, but also for enhancing enterprise capabilities and performance.An innovative strategy is needed to integrate data from various sources, including the cloud, leveraging artificial intelligence for enhanced parallel speed performance, according to David Wohlford (pictured), worldwide senior product marketing manager for IBM Storage for AI and cloud scale at IBM.“It’s kind of exciting because people are talking about data; it is about data,” Wohlford said

Inside Groq’s LPU and its impact on generative AI

Artificial intelligence solutions company Groq Inc. — not to be confused with X’s new chatbot, Grok — is the creator of the first Language Process Unit, the company says.With its LPU Inference Engine, Groq can deliver the world’s fastest generative AI, and the fastest way to accurately run a large language model, according to the company’s CEO, Jonathan Ross (pictured). It believes in an AI economy powered by human agency and envisions a world where AI is accessible to all.“The best way to think about [LPU] is all of these other architectures you’re hearing about are really good at parallel compute,” Ross said. “Some of them are really good at sequential compute

Liqid aims to prepare hardware for a future of AI and dynamic computing