Computer makers unveil 50 AI servers with Nvidia’s A100 GPUs

Computer makers are unveiling a total of 50 servers with Nvidia's A100 graphics processing units (GPUs) to power AI, data science, and scientific computing applications. The first GPU based on the Nvidia Ampere architecture, the A100 is the company's largest leap in GPU performance to date, with features such as the ability for one GPU to be partitioned into seven separate GPUs as needed, Nvidia said. The company made the announcement ahead of the ISC High Performance online event, which is dedicated to high-performance computing.

Unveiled in May, the A100 GPU has 54 billion transistors (the on-off switches that are the building blocks of all things electronic) and can execute 5 petaflops of performance, or about 20 times more than the previous-generation chip Volta. This means central processing unit (CPU) servers that cost $20 million and take up 22 racks can be replaced by new servers that cost $3 million and take up just four GPU-based server racks, said Nvidia product marketing director Paresh Kharya in a press briefing.

The systems are coming from computer makers that include Asus, Atos, Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, Gigabyte, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Inspur, Lenovo, One Stop Systems, Quanta/QCT, and Supermicro. Server availability varies, with 30 systems expected this summer and over 20 more by the end of the year, Kharya said.

Integrating Mellanox

Above: Nvidia's Mellanox interconnect technology.

Image Credit: Nvidia

The latest machines include new InfiniBand interconnect technology from Mellanox, which Nvidia paid $7 billion to acquire in 2019. Nvidia integrated Mellanox technology with the A100 to create Selene, which Nvidia bills as a top 10 supercomputer and the world's most energy-efficient computer. Selene was designed in less than a month and provides over 1 exaflop of AI processing. Kharya said supercomputers like Selene will help Nvidia further penetrate the world's top supercomputers.

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Last year, Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) were part of 125 of the top 500 supercomputers in the world, according to ISC. If you count the supercomputers with Mellanox InfiniBand technology, that number is more than 300, and the list is expected to grow even larger in 2020.

"If you look at the top 500 list, the reason why Nvidia is so successful in supercomputing is because scientific computing has changed," Kharya said. "We've entered a new era, one that has expanded beyond traditional modeling and simulation workloads to include AI, data analytics, edge screening, and big data visualization."

Kharya said Mellanox interconnect chips power the world's leading weather forecast supercomputers. Weather and climate models are both compute- and data-intensive. Forecast quality depends on the model's complexity and level of resolution. And supercomputer performance depends on interconnect technology to move data quickly across different computers.

"It's exciting to have the best compute on one side and the best network on the other, and now we can start to combine those technologies together and start building amazing things," said Nvidia senior VP Gilad Shainer in a press briefing.

Above: Nvidia has set a new record with the RAPIDS benchmark.

Image Credit: Nvidia

Customers using Mellanox include the Spanish Meteorological Agency, the China Meteorological Administration, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, NASA, and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.

The Beijing Meteorological Service has selected 200 Gigabit HDR InfiniBand interconnect technology to accelerate its new supercomputing platform, which will be used to enhance weather forecasting, improve climate and environmental research, and serve the weather forecasting information needs of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Nvidia said it has been able to run the RAPIDS suite of open source data science software in just 14.5 minutes, breaking the previous record of performance by 19.5 times. (A rival central processing unit (CPU) system does the same task in 4.7 hours.) Nvidia owes its gains to its new Nvidia DGX A100 systems using the Nvidia A100 artificial intelligence GPU chip. The 16 Nvidia DGX A100 systems used in the benchmark test had a total of 128 Nvidia A100 GPUs with Mellanox interconnects. The company also unveiled the Nvidia Mellanox UFM Cyber-AI platform, which minimizes downtime in InfiniBand datacenters by harnessing AI-powered analytics to detect security threats and operational issues.

This extension of the UFM platform product portfolio — which has managed InfiniBand systems for nearly a decade — applies AI to learn a datacenter's operational cadence and network workload patterns. It draws on both real-time and historic telemetry and workload data. Against this baseline, it tracks the system's health and network modifications and detects performance problems.

The new platform provides alerts of abnormal system and application behavior and potential system failures and threats, as well as performing corrective actions. It also delivers security alerts in cases of attempted system hacking, such as cryptocurrency mining. The result is reduced datacenter downtime — which typically costs more than $300,000 an hour, according to the ITIC 2020 report.

Fighting the coronavirus

Above: Nvidia's GPUs are being enlisted in the coronavirus fight.

Image Credit: Nvidia

Kharya said Nvidia's scientific computing platform has been enlisted in the fight against COVID-19. In genomics, Oxford Nanopore Technologies was able to sequence the virus genome in just seven hours using Nvidia GPUs. For infection analysis and prediction, the Nvidia RAPIDS team has helped create the GPU-accelerated Plotly's Dash, a data visualization tool that enables clearer insights into real-time infection rate analysis.

Nvidia's tools can be used to predict the availability of hospital resources across the U.S. In structural biology, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the University of Texas, Austin are using GPU-accelerated software CryoSPARC to reconstruct the first 3D structure of the virus protein using cryogenic electron microscopy.

In treatment, Nvidia worked with the National Institutes of Health and built AI to accurately classify COVID-19 infection based on lung scans so doctors can devise efficient treatment plans. In drug discovery, Oak Ridge National Laboratory ran the Scripps Research Institute's AutoDock on the GPU accelerated Summit Supercomputer to screen a billion potential drug combinations in just 12 hours.

In robotics, startup Kiwi is building robots to deliver medical supplies autonomously while in edge detection, Whiteboard Coordinator built an AI system to automatically measure elevated body temperatures, screening well over 2,000 health care workers per hour. In total, Nvidia accelerates more than 700 high-performance computing applications.

NVIDIA GTC 2020 Keynote Part 6: NVIDIA A100 Data Center GPU Based on NVIDIA Ampere Architecture

Windsor student gets $80k scholarship to pursue computer science degree

A grade 12 student at Vincent Massey Secondary School with a passion for computer science now has an $80,000 leg up to pursue a career in the field. "I think a big part of it is I now get to be in a network of, like, other leaders and like-minded individuals," Schulich scholarship recipient Anish Aggarwal said.  The scholarship will allow him to pursue a computer science degree at the University of Waterloo. Aggarwal founded and runs "Code Reach", a program which introduces elementary school students to coding.  He said that what really solidified the fact he wanted to pursue a career in the computer science field was his experience in computer science club in Grade 9. "Being able to code something and actually see it come alive... it was fun for me," Aggarwal said.   That experience led him to attend a number of events outside of the classroom.  "What I'm passionate about [is] I like to go outside of the classroom a lot, so I will do different hack-a-thons, different competitions, extra-curricular math camps," he said. "My biggest thing, I think was, I went to MIT for the virtual reality hack-a-thon. So there were a bunch of these events that really had a big impact on me."  His mother, Seema Aggarwal, said she and the entire family are proud of his accomplishments. She said he's a very hard working person and passionate about what he does. "He gives 100 per cent... and [is] very competitive," Seema said. As far as his long-term goals, she said he wants to own a big company one day. "He wants to be, you know, [one of] the big wigs out there," she said. "I have my feelings he will be able to achieve that." 

Forget Apple’s Macbook Or Microsoft’s Surface This Is My Perfect Laptop

My living room is littered with technology. This is part of being a consumer technology journalist: you're constantly surrounded by things that need to be examined - and you're constantly examining those things. Like a forensic investigator whose lab is their dining table. 

Technology crams my bookshelf, peppers my dining table and fills my draws. From my borrowed Motorola Edge and HTC Vive Cosmos, to my Microsoft Surface Book 2 and my partner's MacBook Pro. These mostly loaned devices come and go from my house, but there's one device that I continually come back to, that has unintentionally become part of the furniture: my Chromebook Pixel. 

Or, more specifically, my Chromebook Pixel 2015. The five-year-old Chromebook has become the central gateway through which all living room internet activity - that requires a bit more dexterity than is offered by a smartphone - flows through. Firing off a lengthy email? Flip open the Chromebook. Doing some serious internet shopping? Flip open the Chromebook.

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There's good reason for this, too. After five years my Chromebook Pixel still boots up instantly. That's not hyperbole, I truly mean instantly. You open the lid and you're good to go. In the time it takes to get my Surface Book going, which is quick anyway, I'm already looking at colour options for window blinds on my Chromebook. 

It's not that the device still works, it's that it shows no signs of wear or age - this really is the Zlatan Ibrahimović of laptops. If Google were to repackage the 2015 Chromebook and sell it as a new 2020 invention, nothing would give away its age apart from the thick display bezels and hazy 720p camera.

The original selling points of the laptop - that it's fast, secure and long-lasting - are as true today as they were when Obama was still President and Twitter was still a fun place to be (RIP fun Twitter). 

I know you're wondering about battery depletion. And yes, it must be true that the lithium ion battery isn't as efficient as it was on day one, but I honestly have not noticed a significant drop in battery life in the same way I do with older smartphones.

My short, intermittent use (apart from press trips, general trips and holidays) of the laptop has probably slowed down the decline of the battery.  I'm still confident about taking my Chromebook out for a day to work remotely without bringing a charger along.

No stress security

This flies in the face of what we understand to be modern consumer technology usage: devices have a shelf life and need to be regularly replaced. As traditional laptops slow down under the weight of increasingly bulky OS updates, or groan under the mass of cumbersome and unused applications, the Chromebook stays agile because the OS is untaxing and its applications are lightweight. 

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For the uninitiated, Chrome OS - the system that powers a Chromebook - is a Linux-based operating system. It's designed to be fast and is essentially the same as the desktop Google Chrome browser. Almost everything goes through the Chrome browser, save for whatever Play Store apps you have installed that aren't browser extensions.   

This is why the device is so quick. It had good specifications when it was released (2.2GHz Intel Core i5-5200U processor and 8GB of RAM) but it was by no means future proofed. The OS is the reason for its longevity. 

It's this stripped down, pared back, approach that also makes Chromebooks safer to use. There are a few reasons for this, from instant and automatic updates to the device checking every time it boots to make sure the system files haven't been tampered with (known as Verified Boot). You can read Android Central's excellent breakdown of how safe Chromebook's are here, but this is an important point. 

"The Linux kernel [that Chrome is based on] is very good at separating individual processes from each other when they are being computed. Chrome leverages this and keeps each and every application and individual tab in the browser inside its own secure sandbox. That means they can't access any other app or the data from any other app directly and have to use the properly secured methods to share anything. 

"This has proven over time (iOS and Android were built on this model) to be one of the best ways to prevent malware from getting a foothold on an account or system and older operating systems like Windows and macOS are in the process of doing the same."

But...

….my Chromebook will no longer be supported with OS and security updates from next June (2021). This isn't uncommon, some Apple devices will be supported for up to eight years and Microsoft laptops will survive until the next Windows release. But those devices are notably slow by the end of their life cycle, whereas my Chromebook is not. 

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It could comfortably go on for a few more years with no noticeable slow down. With a battery replacement it could do many more. So this cut-off date that renders it useless is entirely artificial and arbitrary. It's planned obsolescence at its worst. 

This device also cost $999 when it launched in 2015. In my initial review five years ago I wondered who this was for, or how it could possibly justify such a high price-tag given how limited it is (my exact words were "best Chromebook, worst value"). Five years on and I've answered my own question. The Chromebook Pixel is, plainly, excellent value for money. I was wrong.

Although, the device has clearly improved from those early Chromebook days. Over the years Google has encouraged developers to make apps that work better on Chromebooks. The PlayStore is more organised for Chromebook optimised apps too. 

The Zoom app on Chrome OS is good, as is the Adobe Lightroom app. No you're not doing serious creative work or gaming on a Chromebook - you need a powerful laptop for that (or a hulking, loud desktop in my case) - but you can do virtually anything else and comfortably, too. 

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Years after my 2015 review, I realise now that it's hard to review a new type of device like the Chromebook Pixel. It made no sense at the time, and I'm not even sure Google fully understood how this device would be used or who it was for.

But as it found a space in my cramped living room and forged an initially niche reason to exist - and eventually promoted itself to Most Important Laptop - it all makes sense now. The speed, security and battery life, plus offering the dexterity of a full laptop that a phone or tablet doesn't, makes my Chromebook Pixel an all-rounder in a way nothing else does. 

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Qualcomm gives custom-built cellular-connected laptops to San Diego United for distance learning

In a bid to help close the digital divide, Qualcomm donated 900 custom-built, cellular-connected laptops to the San Diego Unified School District on Thursday to support continuing distance learning programs.

The computers run on the company's Snapdragon processors and include built-in cellular connectivity, giving students with limited access to Wi-Fi another avenue to learn remotely.

Qualcomm arranged to have the computers assembled by a contract manufacturer in Taiwan.

The laptops, along with three months of free cellular data from AT&T, totaled more than $400,000, said Susie Armstrong, vice president of engineering for Qualcomm.

"In a case like distance learning, there is a tremendous amount of well-intentioned hardware donations," said Armstrong. "But the key point is, how do you actually get those to have connectivity."

During the COVID-19 shutdowns, many coffee shops or libraries where students typically would go to link to Wi-Fi were shut down.

"I never want to donate a lump of hardware and software without data plans and some way to financially make sure that they get connected and stay connected," said Armstrong.

While the current donation covers three months of cellular data, Qualcomm and the school district are working to find additional funding sources so that data plans can be available to students for at least the full school year.

One possibility is to seek funding from E-Rate, the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service program for schools and libraries.

San Diego Unified this week announced plans to return to school in person on Aug. 31 while following public health safety guidelines. That likely means that some students will choose not to come back to campuses at this time, said Superintendent Cindy Marten.

The district has about 9,000 students with asthma and another 1,000 who are considered medically fragile.

"It might not be a good idea for them to come to learn in person," she said. "So we want to make sure our online option is even more robust. These computers are part of that."

Qualcomm had some excess Snapdragon processors used for always-on, always-connected computers. The company has worked with the district for years though Thinkabit Lab and other STEM outreach programs.

When the district approached the company about helping with distance learning, it eventually led Qualcomm to build the white label laptops.

The computers include the latest Windows operating system software and education suite from Microsoft, long battery life and both Wi-Fi and cellular connections.

The computers are expected to be distributed later this summer after Qualcomm makes the official grant to the Board of Education. The company spent more than $260,000 assembling the machines and $141,000 for the cellular data plans.

"We are deeply committed to closing the connectivity gap," said Marten. "This partnership goes a long way at supporting our students and teachers."

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Review: Creating Professional Conferencing with Poly Studio X30 — No Computer Required

Until recently, most U.S. K–12 schools had not attempted long-term, full-scale remote learning. That lack of experience contributed to widespread implementation problems as educators attempted to discover the ins and outs of new digital collaboration tools. That pivot comes with a pretty steep learning curve.

But the Poly Studio X30 videoconferencing device was designed to not only flatten that learning curve but to squash it altogether. The X30 is a fully self-contained device that needs nothing more than a power plug and an internet connection to begin working.

When I first received the X30, I initially thought parts were missing. The 1.6-pound device looks like a television sound bar with a camera lens in the middle. It turns out that's all a user needs to begin hosting professional meetings or virtual classroom sessions. You don't even need to attach a computer; just use the power cable and either a wired or wireless internet connection.

I used a smartphone with the Zoom Rooms app for Android to control the X30, setting up a virtual classroom in minutes. The X30 has an HDMI port too, so it can be connected to almost any monitor or projector. Doing that would allow a teacher to see when each student joins the room and monitor whether everyone is paying attention.

Everything recorded by the X30 looks amazing. The camera is able to capture images in up to 4K resolution, and it has advanced features including a digital zoom and automatic tracking with people framing. Remote students should have no trouble hearing everything inside the classroom either, thanks to four high-quality MEMS microphones. Each microphone is tuned to perfectly capture human voices from anywhere within a moderately sized class or meeting room.

At one point there were four presenters in the room talking, and remote participants could see and hear everything. I even held up a textbook for those joining the meeting remotely, and they were easily able to read the pages on their screens.

While classroom instruction with the Poly Studio X30 might not top actually being there, it's easily the next best thing. It removes all the complexities of teleconferencing and lets educators focus on teaching and building a comfortable virtual classroom environment to encourage remote student participation.

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  Poly Studio X30

SUPPORTED VIDEO STANDARDS: H.264 AVC, H.264 AVC high-profile, H.265 HEVCVIDEO OUTPUT: HDMIVIDEO RESOLUTIONS: SVGA (800x600) to UHD (3840x2160)AUDIO INPUT: Four MEMS microphonesDIMENSIONS: 17.34x2.46x2.42 inchesWEIGHT: 1.6 pounds

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Council hands out 500 laptops to needy children to boost learning

More than 500 laptops have been handed out to pupils as Renfrewshire Council vows children from low-income families will not be left behind during home schooling.

The council said it is helping more students learn online, will reissue paper learning packs in August and is offering assistance to parents struggling to carry out home schooling as it is awarded funding for the new academic year.

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The £4.5million handed over by the Scottish Government will be used by education chiefs to mitigate the impact of coronavirus on children's learning.

The money is part of the Attainment Challenge Fund and will allow the council to plough cash into schemes that best support children from the area's most deprived households.

It will be shared across all 62 schools in the local authority area.

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The council can also take advantage of a £9million pot designed to get laptops and internet access to children trying to follow tasks and learn online.

The council says it has already dished out 500 Chrome notebooks to youngsters and says paper learning packs will be handed out by schools when they launch a mixture of home and school learning in August.

Schools have also, the local authority says, tried to make sure approaches to home learning are as easy as possible for parents and carers to follow.

Councillor Jim Paterson, convener of the council's education and children's services board, told the Express: "One of our main priorities is to ensure that all children in Renfrewshire receive an education that ensures they fulfil their potential, regardless of their background.

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"Having been the first council to be rated 'excellent' for our work in reducing the poverty-related attainment gap, we know that what we have been doing is working – but we are always looking for new and innovative ways to help our young people thrive.

"This funding will assist us to continue to close the gap, while now providing a specific emphasis on supporting the safety, well-being and resilience of young people as they transition back into schools and early learning and childcare settings following the coronavirus pandemic."

He added: "Children will have access to the appropriate resources to support their learning in all curricular areas such as literacy and numeracy, and our staff will be upskilled to deliver new methods of learning and teaching - with more than 1,000 teachers already having done so.

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"We will continue to deliver health and wellbeing projects such as Place 2 Be, PATHS and Renfrewshire Nurturing Relationships Approach, which provide vital social and emotional support for our children and young people – particularly during these difficult times.

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"I'm looking forward to seeing the impact of this funding in our schools as we continue to provide the best possible education for each and every young person in Renfrewshire."

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Verizon gets its first 5G laptop in Lenovo's Flex 5G

Lenovo's first 5G-capable PC is ready to ship, with Verizon users able to get it on June 18. 

First announced back at CES in January, the $1,400 Flex 5G will hit Verizon stores later this week marking the first time a US carrier is selling a laptop capable of tapping into 5G wireless networks. 

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The two-in-one computer features a 14-inch full HD touchscreen display that is capable of 400 nits of brightness, weighs just under three pounds (1.35 kg) and runs Windows 10 off of Qualcomm's 8cx computing platform with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. As with other Lenovo PCs, the Flex 5G can be used as a traditional laptop, or with the screen folded all the way back to become a tablet. 

Other specs include a 720p HD webcam with infrared for logging in through Windows Hello, two USB 3.1 Type-C ports as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. Lenovo claims the PC is capable of getting 24 hours of battery life on a single charge. Bluetooth 5.0 is available, but there's no support for the new Wi-Fi 6 standard. 

A one-year subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal, which includes Microsoft Office and 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage, is included with each Flex 5G purchase from either Lenovo.com or Verizon.

The Flex 5G is capable of tapping into the carrier's existing millimeter-wave 5G network that is active in parts of 35 cities around the country. As with other recent Verizon 5G devices, it will also be able to use Verizon's new, wider-ranging low-band 5G network when it goes live later this year. 

Beyond needing to be in a city with 5G, those looking to take advantage of the faster connectivity will need to be on Verizon's new 5G Ultra Wideband Connected Device Plan. The plan runs $30 per month for those who already have wireless service through Verizon or $90 per month for those without. 

As part of the plan, you'll be able to get unlimited 5G millimeter-wave data, hotspot and 4K streaming on the laptop when in an area that has a millimeter-wave signal (what Verizon calls "ultra wideband"). 

When on 4G LTE, the plan will offer unlimited 4G LTE data (with 15GB available before the risk of being slowed down in areas of "congestion"), 15GB of 4G LTE hotspot (with unlimited data available thereafter at significantly slower speeds of 600Kbps) and 720p video streaming.  

4G LTE-only plans are also available, including an option to add it to your existing plan. 

Known internationally as the Yoga 5G, the computer will be sold by other wireless carriers including EE in the UK, Sunrise in Switzerland and CMCC in China later this year. 

Verizon introduces the Lenovo Flex 5G