NVIDIA rolls out ODM partner programme for AI-based cloud computing

Source: NVIDIA. The new ODM partner programme will accelerate the delivery of AI-based cloud computing solutions via early access to the NVIDIA HGX reference architecture, which is pictured above.

NVIDIA has launched a partner programme with leading original design manufacturers (ODMs) — Foxconn, Inventec, Quanta, and Wistron — to meet the demands for artificial intelligence (AI)-based cloud computing more rapidly. Through the programme, NVIDIA engineers will work closely with ODMs to help minimise the time from design wins to production deployments.

Through the NVIDIA HGX Partner Program, NVIDIA is providing each ODM with early access to the NVIDIA HGX reference architecture, NVIDIA GPU computing technologies and design guidelines. With HGX as a starter 'recipe', ODM partners can work with NVIDIA to accelerate the delivery of qualified GPU-accelerated systems for hyperscale data centres. HGX is the same data centre design used in Microsoft’s Project Olympus initiative, Facebook’s Big Basin systems and NVIDIA DGX-1 AI supercomputers.

“Accelerated computing is evolving rapidly — in just one year we tripled the deep learning performance in our Tesla GPUs — and this is having a significant impact on the way systems are designed,” said Ian Buck, GM, Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA. “Through our HGX partner programme, device makers can ensure they’re offering the latest AI technologies to the growing community of cloud computing providers.”

NVIDIA built the HGX reference design to meet the high-performance, efficiency and massive scaling requirements unique to hyperscale cloud environments. Configurable based on workload needs, HGX can easily combine GPUs and CPUs in different ways for high performance computing, deep learning training and deep learning inferencing.

The standard HGX design architecture includes eight NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators in the SXM2 form factor and connected in a cube mesh using NVIDIA NVLink high-speed interconnects and optimised PCIe topologies. HGX enclosures are modular and can be deployed in existing data centre racks, using hyperscale CPU nodes as needed. Both NVIDIA Tesla P100 and V100 GPU accelerators are compatible with HGX. This allows for the immediate upgrades of all HGX-based products once V100 GPUs become available later this year.

HGX is also ideal for cloud providers seeking to host the new NVIDIA GPU Cloud platform. The NVIDIA GPU Cloud platform manages a catalogue of fully integrated and optimised deep learning framework containers, including Caffe2, Cognitive Toolkit, MXNet, and TensorFlow.

“Through this new partner programme with NVIDIA, we will be able to more quickly serve the growing demands of our customers, many of whom manage some of the largest data centres in the world,” said Taiyu Chou, GM, Foxconn/Hon Hai Precision and President of Ingrasys Technology. “Early access to NVIDIA GPU technologies and design guidelines will help us more rapidly introduce innovative products for our customers’ growing AI computing needs.”

“Working more closely with NVIDIA will help us infuse a new level of innovation into data centre infrastructure worldwide,” said Evan Chien, Head of IEC China operations at Inventec Corporation. “Through our close collaboration, we will be able to more effectively address the compute-intensive AI needs of companies managing hyperscale cloud environments.”

“Tapping into NVIDIA’s AI computing expertise will allow us to immediately bring to market game-changing solutions to meet the new computing requirements of the AI era,” said Mike Yang, Senior VP, Quanta Computer and President at QCT.

“As a long-time collaborator with NVIDIA, we look forward to deepening our relationship so that we can meet the increasing computing needs of our hyperscale data centre customers,” added Donald Hwang, CTO and President of the Enterprise Business Group at Wistron. “Our customers are hungry for more GPU computing power to handle a variety of AI workloads, and through this new partnership we will be able to deliver new solutions faster.”

 “We’ve collaborated with Ingrasys and NVIDIA to pioneer a new industry standard design to meet the growing demands of the new AI era,” said Kushagra Vaid, GM and Distinguished Engineer, Azure Hardware Infrastructure, Microsoft. "The HGX-1 AI accelerator has been developed as a component of Microsoft’s Project Olympus to achieve extreme performance scalability through the option for high-bandwidth interconnectivity for up to 32 GPUs.”

According to NVIDIA, the overall demand for AI computing resources has risen sharply over the past year, as has market adoption and performance of NVIDIA’s GPU computing platform. Today, 10 of the world’s top 10 hyperscale businesses are using NVIDIA GPU accelerators in their data centres.

Hashtag: #COMPUTEX

posted from Bloggeroid