Nvidia launches Cambridge-1, UK's most powerful supercomputer, in Arm's neighbourhood
- Reference: 1625664613
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/07/nvidia_launches_cambridge1_supercomputer_in/
- Source link:
[1]
Part of Nvidia's Cambridge-1 supercomputer
The Cambridge-1 is the highest ranking supercomputer in Britain according to the Top500 list, currently sitting in [2]41st place globally with maximum performance of 9,682 TFlop/s – though the world's fastest, the [3]Supercomputer Fugaku , can manage 442,010.
The supercomputer was [4]announced in October last year at which time it was slated to "come online by year end," so it is somewhat delayed, but still constructed rapidly thanks to the use of Nvidia's modular [5]DGX SuperPOD , [6]described as a "turnkey AI data center."
The actual deployment of the supercomputer took less than 20 weeks, Nvidia told us. Costs have increased a bit though: the October post talked of a £40m investment, while at today's launch the figure given was $100m (over £72m).
The Cambridge-A1 consists of 80 DGX A100 systems connected by Infiniband networking. Each DGX A100 has 8 A100 GPUs, 320GB GPU RAM, two AMD EPYC 7742 CPUs (64 cores each), up to 2TB system RAM, up to 30TB NVME data cache drives, and 2 1.92TB NVME SSDs.
[7]
The A100 GPU is Nvidia's high end Ampere GPU, following on from the Tesla V100; it is described in detail [8]here . There are 6912 CUDA (Nvidia's GPU programming platform) cores per GPU, to support massively parallel computing – and there is a total of 640 A100 GPUs in the system.
[9]
An Nvidia A100 GPU
The only way is Essex
The physical location of the Cambridge-1 (despite the name) is Harlow, in Essex, at the data centre of Kao Data, chosen in part for its [10]green credentials : the company claims to use 100 per cent renewable energy, meet the EU's data centre environmental guidelines, and use 100 per cent free cooling, meaning that cool air comes from the external atmosphere. Harlow is on the "Cambridge to London UK innovation corridor," [11]said Kao Data, doing its best to associate Harlow with Cambridge.
"It's our first dedicated supercomputer for healthcare, and probably in the world," said David Hogan, veep of Enterprise EMEA at Nvidia.
Science and medicine aid
The initial setup involves five "founding partners."
These are GSK, AstraZeneca, Oxford Nanopore, Kings College London (KCL), and Guy's and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust.
[12]
[13]
We spoke to Professor Sebastien Ourselin at KCL, head of biomedical engineering and imaging sciences. Ourselin is also deputy director of the [14]AI Centre for value based healthcare, a joint project primarily between KCL, Guy's and St Thomas', along with other NHS trusts, universities and technology vendors including Nvidia.
"For the past three-and-a-half years, Nvidia has been our main partner in our program of artificial intelligence in healthcare at Kings," he told The Reg .
[15]
Ourselin said the capacity of Cambridge-1 is necessary for its healthcare AI to be equitable and accurate. "With AI, there are two big challenges to solve. One is access to data at scale, and second, access to computational power at scale. A lot of people can build AI models. The challenge is how to make sure it can translate into an unbiased, equitable model, and to do that, especially in healthcare, you need access to a huge amount of data which are representative of your population.
"For Nvidia being part of a consortium like the AI Centre was a way of getting access to a lot of data in collaboration with us and help us to train these models," he said.
KCL specialises in AI based on image data such as MRI scans. "If you try to prognose or diagnose based on image information, you base everything on training. So what you ingest is what the algorithm will be able to learn with. If now your population is, let's say, only Caucasian, what happens if you now present non-Caucasian data? It might not work.
[16]
"What if your dataset only represents a healthy population? It might never find any disease. What if the dataset is only males? If you want to increase the dataset, the model becomes much more complex to explain all of the data. And the only way is to have large computational power. That is where Cambridge-1 came into play; it enabled us to train models at a scale we were not able to do before," he said.
KCL has its own supercomputer which is "much smaller than Cambridge-1," Ourselin said. This meant that testing a new model might take three weeks, limiting the number of feasible tests. "If you can get an answer overnight you can accelerate the research," he said.
Data protection
Privacy is an issue. "Data coming from the NHS will be transferred to the supercomputer in a fully secure enclave so the only people who can access the data are the people from the hospital. In all the experiments we are doing, the data will never be seen by anyone else. It is as if the supercomputer were an extension of the hospital.
"The idea is to build what I call a smart NHS where you can send a vast amount of data without having to anonymize, to get the full richness of the data, and you are able to build models which are multi-dimensional," he said – words that may concern privacy advocates, since leaks of supposedly secure data are not unknown.
What will be the cost to KCL? "We don't pay for this resource. It is provided pro bono by Nvidia, which invested over £40m in the supercomputer. We don't pay anything. We're not charged for the usage of the supercomputer. And we keep all the intellectual property we generate. There is no financial model where we have to pay for anything."
The initial access is for one year, Ourselin told us, but he expects the subsidy to continue, "because we show them value."
What is the value to Nvidia?
"The CEO Jensen [Huang] was very keen to contribute, for society, not fully based on a financial model, but to demonstrate that AI can have a positive impact on society," said Ourselin.
"Nvidia offered not only to provide Cambridge-1 to those five founders, but to provide it to a much larger community in the future. To be able to do that, they wanted first to demonstrate through a set of concepts that adding such capability will actually be transformative."
[17]Chinese chip designers hope to topple Arm's Cortex-A76 with XiangShan RISC-V design
[18]AMD opens wallet to lure scientific computing boffins away from Nvidia's CUDA onto its Instinct accelerators
[19]RISC-V boffins lay out a plan for bringing the architecture to high-performance computing
[20]Bull in a cosmos shop: Edinburgh uni boffins strike deal with Atos for BullSequana supercomputer
[21]America to get world's 'most powerful' AI supercomputer to create the most detailed 3D map of the universe yet
This may be true; but we note that [22]Nvidia is in the process of acquiring Cambridge-based Arm , subject to regulatory approval, and keen to put this transaction in the best possible light.
Nvidia has a sub-site on the matter, including a [23]page on "Our vision for the UK" which states that "Nvidia intends to fulfill its vision of creating the leading computing company for the age of AI here in Cambridge – propelling Arm and the UK to global AI leadership."
Specific plans include a "new world-class AI research centre" of which Cambridge-1 is part. Cambridge-1 is AMD-based, but the company plans a future supercomputer "powered by Arm CPUs and Nvidia GPUs … at the iconic headquarters of Arm." Cambridge-2 perhaps?
Still, as Ourselin told us, Nvidia planting a supercomputer in Brexit-stricken UK is a nice boost at a difficult time. "There is a lot of reason for celebrating why a US company comes to the UK and invests in the UK. They could have put a supercomputer anywhere in the world," he said. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/07/06/cambridge1.jpg
[2] https://www.top500.org/system/179960/
[3] https://www.top500.org/system/179807/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/06/nvidia_gtc_roundup/
[5] https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/dgx-superpod/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/17/nvidia_arms_itself_for_powerefficiency/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/hpc&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YOXPoPrmrhSxafmXzoG9WAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-ampere-architecture-in-depth/
[9] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/07/07/a100gpu.jpg
[10] https://kaodata.com/sustainability
[11] https://kaodata.com/blog/supercomputing-at-the-speed-of-light
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/hpc&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YOXPoPrmrhSxafmXzoG9WAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/hpc&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YOXPoPrmrhSxafmXzoG9WAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.aicentre.co.uk/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/hpc&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YOXPoPrmrhSxafmXzoG9WAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/hpc&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YOXPoPrmrhSxafmXzoG9WAAAAIE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/06/xiangshan_risc_v/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/29/amd_aier_initiative/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/10/riscv_hpc/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/02/edinburgh_atos_bullsequna_xh2000/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/27/most_powerful_ai/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/05/arm_chief_nvidia_buyout/
[23] https://arm.nvidia.com/uk-vision/
[24] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"The idea is [...] you can send a vast amount of data without having to anonymize,..."
Not a brilliant idea, given the record of government services on both IT security and privacy. And likely to raise data protection concerns (supposing anyone in authority actually cares).
Re: "The idea is [...] you can send a vast amount of data without having to anonymize,..."
Indeed. Data is supposed to be anonymised before it leaves the NHS, not after it gets somewhere else.
"Brexit-stricken", rilly?
You've had 5 years for chrissake. Time to blow your nose, dry those tears and move on, like a real grown-up.
Re: "Brexit-stricken", rilly?
Now we've done just over six months of Real Brexit™, it's starting to get entertaining. Why would you want people to move on when they can admire what Brexit really is in all its glory?
Also, praise where its due, Nvidia managed to find a lorry to transport the supercomputer. Easier said than done but apparently nothing to do with Brexit.
"doing its best to associate Harlow with Cambridge"
An association we in Cambridge will deny vehemently.
Re: "doing its best to associate Harlow with Cambridge"
"Cambridge to London UK innovation corridor"
That sounds suspiciously like logo that one of the the Bedfordshire Councils had about being in the "Oxford - Cambridge Arc", which rather implied to me that they couldn't think of anything good to say about Bedfordshire.
Re: "doing its best to associate Harlow with Cambridge"
I think those have gone now --- maybe someone pointed out to them that it meant "about halfway between two places you *have* heard of, although not quite on the straight line between them".
Pretentious, Moi?
'Cambridge to London UK innovation corridor'
M11 to everyone else....
or even less exciting A10...
Re: Pretentious, Moi?
The A10 has a Porsche and Aston Martin showroom very close to a Ducati dealers at Harston. I keep being tempted to visit and see how long it takes them to ask me to leave. That's as exciting as it gets. Or maybe the Foxton level crossing.
Re: Pretentious, Moi?
I remember trying to make the A10 "more interesting" during some boring commutes when I was young(er) and stupid(er). My analysis of those experiences is that I don't really recommend it; the A10 is fundamentally dull and life's too short, so it's best to avoid making it shorter as I seemed determined to accomplish. "But I'm 22 and indestructible!" etc, as was the case; God was it really nearly 30 years ago? D:
Still, I'll take "yikes, who put that roundabout there?!" over someone calling it the "Innovation Corridor". Hate, etc.
I think anything like this is great. It feels like England barely does science or engineering these days. Instead we just sell crappy smart phones to each other and spend time monetising trivial crap ;)
However, from the photo. It certainly looks... British. Not exactly sleek like a sports car! But still cool nonetheless.
Trouble is that with the long supply chains in almost every industry, no country feels as if it does science and engineering. But a fair proportion of the worlds airliners have engines made in Derby, most of the FIA motor racing teams are based here, and we devised a cheap and cheerful COVID vaccine for the world.
Has it got a TPM 4.0 chip :)
“The challenge is how to make sure it can translate into an unbiased, equitable model, and to do that, especially in healthcare, you need access to a huge amount of data which are representative of your population.”
Indeed, medical data must be impartial, bias level must be minimal. That is, each word in a medical document must have its only and well-defined meaning. This can be achieved by comparing multiple definitions of a given word (taken from a dictionary) with the context in which this word is located; which requires incredibly huge resources.
A 48-year-old design?
I seem to recall Sinclair already produced a "Cambridge 1" back in 1973. It certainly had an excellent price-performance ratio back them but I'd hardly call it a supercomputer; hopefully NVIDIA have updated it somewhat.
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/cambridge_models.html
pointless navel gaze
honestly is this the best they can come up with...
if your going to try and influence people do better Nvidia your name is attached its basically pointless give them some actual vector mathematical engines.
I hope no one is feeling good about this and instead realise how much an exercise in navel gazing this is...