HPC Top 5 StoriesWeekly Insights into the World of High Performance Computing

High performance computing has made significant progress recently.

IDC has reported that the HPC technical server market grew 3.9% annually in Q3 2016, compared to Q3 of 2015.

-ChannelNomics

Additionally, IDC said that the HPC technical server market reached $8.1 billion, a 3.4% increase from the same period last year.

-ChannelNomics

From GPU hackathons to 2017 HPC

trends, here are the “Top Five” stories

highlighting what’s hot in High Performance Computing.

1HPC TOP 5

GPUs: The Key to Cognitive ComputingThe most cost-effective way to address this performance bottleneck today is the Graphics Processing Unit. GPUs are capable of processing data up to 100 times faster than configurations containing CPUs alone. The reason for such a dramatic improvement is their massively parallel processing capabilities, with some GPUs containing nearly 5,000 cores—over 100 times more than the 16-32 cores found in today’s most powerful CPUs. The GPU’s small, efficient cores are also better suited to performing similar, repeated instructions in parallel, making it ideal for accelerating the processing-intensive workloads that characterize cognitive computing.

READ ARTICLETo discover more about the most advanced data center ever built, read about the NVIDIA Tesla P100.

2HPC TOP 5

2017 GPU HackathonsWe are excited to announce 2017 GPU Hackathons!General-purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPGPUs) potentially offer exceptionally high memory bandwidth and performance for a wide range of applications. The challenge in utilizing such accelerators has been the difficulty in programming them.  Any and all GPU programming paradigms are welcome. There will be intensive mentoring during this 5-day hands-on workshop, with the goal that the teams leave with applications running on GPUs, or at least with a clear roadmap of how to get there.  Our mentors come from national laboratories, universities and vendors, and besides having extensive experience in programming GPUs, many of them develop the GPU-capable compilers and help define standards such as OpenACC and OpenMP.LEARN MORE Accelerated computing is fueling some of the

most exciting scientific discoveries today. Learn more about OpenACC.

3HPC TOP 5

Don’t Play Games with your Data CenterData centers are entering the era of graphics processing units (GPUs) as the “brains” of digital applications. NVIDIA pioneered the market in the late 1990s with its G80 processor that provided co-processing capabilities for graphics-heavy applications such as gaming. Some vendors, such as Intel, have integrated graphics controllers on the CPU, and these work great for applications such as Microsoft Office, Solitaire and Minesweeper. However, any game that was even moderately graphics-intensive required a separate GPU to deliver a high-quality experience. 

READ ARTICLERead more about the world’s most advanced Data Center GPUs.

4HPC TOP 5

BioTeam’s Berman Charts 2017 HPC Trends in Live SciencesBerman says the latest generation of GPUs, notably NVIDIA’s Pascal P100, will be game changers for applications in molecular dynamics and simulation space. “The P100 have come out in really hyper dense offerings, something like 180 teraflops of performance in a single machine. Just insane. So those are incredibly expensive but people who are trying to be competitive with something like an Anton are going to start updating [with the new GPU systems].”

VIEW TRENDSView the NVIDIA Tesla P100 Technical Overview, explaining it’s infinite compute power for the modern data center.

5HPC TOP 5

Facing the Truth: AI Tells You How Old You Look– and What to Do About ItTo accelerate training, Olay researchers used the CUDA parallel computing platform, NVIDIA TITAN X GPUs and cuDNN with the Torch deep learning framework. The trained software evaluates a user’s skin for signs of aging such as fine lines, wrinkles, dark spots and compares it to others’ skin to arrive at a skin age estimate, Neuser said. “Deep learning technologies are the future, and it’s helping us get the right products to the right women to ensure they get more from their skin care.”

READ NVIDIA BLOGLearn more about the value of NVIDIA CUDA and cuDNN technologies.

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