SC23 was an incredible event that truly showcased how the industry and customers are embracing the convergence of HPC and AI. Catch the HPE highlights and accolades shared during the conference.
SC23 in Denver, Colorado was an incredible conference that truly showcased how the industry and customers are embracing the convergence of HPC and AI. Our HPE team experienced this convergence firsthand walking through the show floor, where we saw a large number of new exhibitors coming from the AI sector.
Why this convergence?
As more and more organizations look to capitalize upon the promise and power of AI, they are challenged with extreme demands for compute power. The best and most efficient way to address those demands is often with supercomputing infrastructure.
As the supercomputing leader, HPE has deep expertise and foundational technologies to address compute needs for AI across a broad set of organizations — from national labs, to research institutions and universities to global enterprises. We support our customers in their quest to accelerate insights and make remarkable discoveries in high-impact areas such as healthcare and climate change.
Even if you were not at SC23 in person, you can still catch the highlights from HPE’s Trish Damkroger, SVP and GM, HPC/AI, as she recounts our key announcements and customer accolades shared during the SC23 conference.
Strengthening AI capabilities in the UK
A recent example of the HPC and AI convergence comes from the United Kingdom, where the University of Bristol is spearheading a project to make the UK a world leader in AI with a new supercomputer, Isambard-AI. The new system will offer computing capacity never seen before in the UK, enabling researchers and industry leaders to deliver AI-driven breakthroughs in fields such as robotics, big data, climate research, and drug discovery. Isambard-AI will be 10X more powerful than the UK’s current fastest supercomputer and among the most powerful in the world when it opens at the National Composites Centre (NCC) in the summer of 2024.
HPE has been selected to deliver the foundational technology for this exciting system, including next generation HPE Cray EX supercomputers, which together with NVIDIA GH200 superchips will allow it to reach up to an incredible 200 quadrillion calculations per second.
With this system, research and industry teams across the UK will be able to harness the huge potential of AI in fields such as robotics, big data, climate research and drug discovery. More details on this new supercomputer and its expected capabilities can be found in this press release.
Proven partner for AI and supercomputing
The TOP500 list has been a marker for the supercomputing industry for three decades. Published twice each calendar year, it ranks and details the 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems in the world. Announced at SC23, the November TOP500 list featured three HPE Cray-powered supercomputers in the top 10, including the top two spots:
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Frontier retained the #1 spot. Developed for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Frontier supercomputer was the world’s first exascale system and its incredible power has enabled scientific breakthroughs.
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Argonne National Laboratory's Aurora supercomputer claimed number 2 with a speed of 585.34 PF/s at half a system run. Built to leverage AI technologies to advance data-intensive research on aircraft design, cancer treatments, and sustainable energy, the Aurora system is currently being used by researchers in the Aurora Early Science Program to leverage generative AI for projects.
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The number 5 position went to LUMI, Europe's fastest system. Located at CSC's data center in Finland, the latest research enabled by LUMI includes climate science, physics, LLM, and AI.
In addition to our relentless focus on delivering technology for speed and performance, we also prioritize energy efficiency and sustainable design. The latest installment of the GREEN500 list that recognizes systems for both power and efficiency, ranked six HPE systems within the top 10, another achievement reaffirming our commitment to delivering technology that respects and protects our planet.
Accelerating AI training with new turnkey solution for AI research centers and large enterprises
A major announcement we made during SC23 was our new supercomputing solution for generative AI. The solution is purpose-built to streamline the model development process with an AI/ML software stack that helps accelerate generative AI and deep learning projects, including LLMs and deep learning recommendation models.
The main aim of the solution is to accelerate AI adoption with a pre-configured and pre-tested stack that includes AI/ML software, industry-leading supercomputing, accelerated compute, networking, storage, and services; and it is one of the first systems in the world to feature the quad NVIDIA Grace Hopper GH200 Superchip configuration.
This turnkey solution is delivered with services for installation and set-up, and designed for use in AI research centers and large enterprises to realize improved time-to-value and speed up training by two to three times. You can get additional details in the solution brief.
New advanced analytics toolset for HPE Slingshot Interconnect
Another key offering announced at SC23 is analytics software that provides insights into workload performance and resource utilization. HPE Cray Supercomputing Fabric AIOps Software will help HPE Slingshot customers maximize performance, reduce downtime and gain highly granular insight into workload fabric resource utilization on their HPC and AI infrastructure.
Take the next step — or the first step — in your AI journey
This is truly an exciting time for supercomputing, as the foundational technology for AI. As you embark upon or continue your own AI journey, count on HPE to help you advance your AI initiatives, no matter the type or size of your organization. Visit our supercomputing solutions page or contact your HPE representative to learn more.
Diana has spent the past 25 years working with the technologies that power the world’s most demanding IT environments and is interested in how solutions based on those technologies impact the business and the world. A native from Colombia, Diana holds an MBA from Georgetown University and has held a variety of regional and global roles with HPE in the US, the UK and Sweden. She is based in Stockholm, Sweden.
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