A podcast for fans of high performance computing.
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, Dan and Jessi talk GTC along with special guest Todd Weiss. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS Feed * eMail us
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew round up the most intriguing batch of recent HPC topics including Graphcore, HPC efforts to better understand melting diamonds and Jazz, as well as quantum startup Alice&Bob. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play … Read More »Jazz, Melting Diamonds, and Schrödinger’s Cat
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew talk Intel’s Ponte Vecchio. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS Feed * eMail us
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, Dan and Jessi are joined by Trish Damkroger and Brent Gorda to talk HPC topics, thoughts, and intriguing trends. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS Feed * eMail us
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew discusses Intel's investment into RISC-V, the 2022 Winter Classic student cluster competition, and quantum computing in Canada. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS Feed * eMail us
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew talks Meta's new AI supercomputer, NVIDIA abandoning ARM, and our latest competition winners. RadioFreeHPC is brought to you by the Surfs Up Hippie and Geriatric Dog Sanctuary of Oceanside, California. Providing a home to both wayward humans and elderly canines since 1972. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download… Read More »NVIDIA Slinks Away, Meta Bulks Up, And We Zap Bugs
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew discuss NVIDIA buying Bright Computing and NOAA's 100x HPC plan. RadioFreeHPC is produced by our Croatian audio man (no really, he's actually in Croatia) and distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS… Read More »NVIDIA’s Future Looks… Bright
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew discuss Frontier delays and gifts for each other should they make Santa’s nice or naughty list. RadioFreeHPC is brought to you by weird things out of Florida. On the cutting-edge of UFOs, backyard gators, and headlines you can’t even believe. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3… Read More »2021 Holiday Episode
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew talk the FTC suing NVIDIA and a webinar on Ayar Lab's optical I/O. The webinar can be viewed at https://buff.ly/3dU8gOp. (Registration required, but it’s worth it.) RadioFreeHPC is produced by the 1980s LARP-ing Society, replacing medieval LARP-ing with nostalgic reenactments of 80s culture. Leg warmers optional. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in… Read More »FTC Blues and Optical I/O
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, a new voice hits the waves as Dan and Jessi talk with Ryan Quick about hyperscale, blockchain, and smattering of good (dare we say… quick…) topics. RadioFreeHPC is produced by the MPI-MA (Maximum Precision In Martial Arts) Dojo of Pain offering mixed martial art and numerical analysis at discount prices.… Read More »Hyperscale with Ryan Quick
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew completes an SC roundup discussing supply chain issues, composable computing, and Oracle's cloud service. RadioFreeHPC is brought to you by Prairie Gulch Old Western Reenactment Club. Join them in their new Oregon Trail reenactment. Apply online. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us… Read More »But Is It Composable? (SC Roundup)
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew discusses the new Top500 list, Atos' Quantum Learning Machine, and a few SC tidbits. RadioFreeHPC is produced by the greater Columbus Dungeons and Dragons team, led by Kevin, Lord High Dungeon Master and Slayer of the Wasteland. Meeting Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in Kevin's Mom's basement. Cookies and… Read More »Top500, Quantum, And SC
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, Dan, Jessi, and Shahin talk AMD's big swing at NVIDIA and the concept of Metaverse. RadioFreeHPC is produced by a group of concerned helicopter mothers who don't understand why they can't have lunch with their adult kids in the clean room, and distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 *… Read More »Cue The Processor Wars
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew talks the biggest news on the mind – China hitting exascale. RadioFreeHPC was produced by a grant from Neo-Luddite, a group dedicated to the belief that the tech invented during their active career represents the peak of innovation and that anything that comes after is at best derivative… Read More »China Hits Exascale
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, a candid and unfiltered interview with Bronis de Supinski, General Chair of SC21. The challenges of St. Louis… with a few tangents along the way. RadioFreeHPC is produced by oldster tech fogies who believe that the good old days of tailor-made custom supercomputers was the pinnacle of tech achievement. Their motto?… Read More »Bronis de Supinski on SC21
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, Jessi vanishes from recording due to DSL issues, Addison Snell of Intersect360 joins to add to the scintillation, and a host of issues are discussed from new scalability to cluster competitions to voice recognition. RadioFreeHPC is a production of millennial tech hipsters who believe that any and all HPC workloads can… Read More »Musical Chairs
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew talk all things exascale, Exascale Day, and most importantly, Exascale Day traditions. RadioFreeHPC is proudly brought to you by Cub Scout Troop #149 and Girl Scout Troop #731 of Dubuque, IA, earning communication merit badges for the effort, and distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us… Read More »Happy Exascale Day!
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, Dan, Henry, and Shahin discuss the take off of RISC-V and Atos' acquisition of Nimbix. Big moves happening on both accounts… RadioFreeHPC is brought to you by the new docu series “The Never-Ending Story” which documents a meeting between life long HPC colleagues as they talk about old technology that… Read More »RISC-V Momentum & Atos' March To The US
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, Henry and Shahin debate the end of open-source due to software vulnerabilities in a format-breaking episode. The honorable Dan Olds acts as moderator. RadioFreeHPC is brought to you by the new movie “Unbelievable” where a HPC storage specialist catches the attention, and then the heart, of a passionate French fashion… Read More »Debate: The End of Open Source
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, Dan, Henry, and Shahin talk about the death of a Jedi, more specifically the cancellation of the Pentagon JEDI contract. Listen in for the details, as well as a full breakdown on multivendor competition and the complexity behind these agreements. RadioFreeHPC is produced by the computer science department at Faber College,… Read More »Fall of the JEDI
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, a full discussion on quantum computing, its applications, and what the world might look like in the quantum age. RadioFreeHPC is made possible by a grant from the Barnum & Baily Foundation for Good Scientific Understand and Stuff and distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us… Read More »World of Quantum
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC the entire crew is back to talk the UK Met Office buying 1.2 billion pounds worth of Azure credits, responsibility when dealing with ransomware, and Elon Musk. RadioFreeHPC is produced by a pack of mildly rabid dogs who have gained the ability to manipulate technology for their own mad agenda.… Read More »The Met Office
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC Henry and Dan speculate that Shahin has been kidnapped by aliens while Jessi does battle with the Midwest heat. Absent co-hosts aside, Henry and Dan give an all-inclusive look at the International Student Cluster Competition, from years prior to this year's throw-down. RadioFreeHPC is produced through a generous grant from… Read More »Your Comprehensive Lead Up To ISC
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC Henry and Dan have a relaxed, non-argumentative session (possibly due to Shahin and Jessi's absences). The two talk ransomware, Henry's ongoing battle with the bots, and practice tips for where to build your telescope's data center. RadioFreeHPC is produced by tthe HPC division of Feldmen's Heating and Air Conditioning, keeping… Read More »Short: RFHPC, Stress Free
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC the crew discusses NVIDIA's expansion to a full-fledged server vendor, the who's and how's of this move, and the implications of the behemoth company's announcement. RadioFreeHPC is produced by the Sun Microsystems Reunification Fund and distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on… Read More »NVIDIA’s Next Move
In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, a breakdown of Henry's battle with the bots, Intel's 7nm, and the potentially impossible task of modeling the Earth. RadioFreeHPC is produced by a team of gnomes hiding in a server rack and distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe… Read More »Henry Newman vs. the World
This is a breaking news edition of Radio Free HPC, so you should play some dramatic and exciting music while you listen to this episode. Wait, don’t do that, we want you to actually hear the episode. So just hum something exciting while you listen. In this special episode, we break down AMD’s new Epyc… Read More »Milan, Milan, Milan
Big changes at Intel: Gelsinger Takes the Helm Our main topic today is Intel, with the bulk of the discussion surrounding the return of Pat Gelsinger as Intel’s new CEO. Pat was a 30 year veteran of Intel before he let to pursue other, well, pursuits – most notably as CEO of VMware. While at… Read More »Big Changes at Intel: Gelsinger Takes the Helm
From the Vault: Radio Free HPC on Pig Brains This week Jessi, Henry, and Dan discuss computer-brain interfaces and how Elon Musk’s Neuralink has recently done this with a pig. Surprisingly, we have some concerns about this, primarily security and control. What kind of EULA would this type of brain chip have, for example? When… Read More »From the Vault: Radio Free HPC on Pig Brains
Our main topic for this episode is the SolarWinds hack. This is the worst digital hacking incident to date and will have repercussions for many years. As many as 18,000 SolarWinds customers may have downloaded the hacked update and opened themselves up to digital mayhem and thievery. This includes many government accounts, some of the… Read More »Digital D-Day: SolarWinds Hack
After a late fall hiatus, Radio Free HPC is back, baby. This is our holiday episode and we start by pledging to be 29% more scintillating in the new year, which is a significant bonus for listeners if we can hit that mark. The theme of the show is HPC: High Performance Christmas. We left… Read More »We’re Back! High Performance Christmas Episode
RISC-V Deep Dive, CTO Interview In this special edition of Radio Free HPC, we interview Mark Himelstein, RISC-V International Chief Technical Officer. In the discussion, we look at RISC-V from all angles, discussing how the opensource ISA is being used today and how it might be used tomorrow. And there’s a lot to consider.… Read More »RISC-V Deep Dive, CTO Interview
We have our full staff for this show – first time in a long time. We start out with introductions….Henry still lives in a survivalist compound in Las Cruces, NM, Jessi is still on crutches, and Shahin is still living in the smokey Silicon Valley. Jumping right into our topic: DOD is getting two new,… Read More »Liqid Gets Hot, NSF Billion for AI
We’re finally starting to cut into our product backlog and, as a first, we’re presenting our special road trip double episode where Jessi and Dan traveled to the House of Henry, buried deeply in Las Cruces, New Mexico. We visit his rammed earth compound and recorded two RFHPC episodes there – and one of them… Read More »Special Fun-tastic Double Episode
We start out with our personal pledge that all of our content is new and not pre-recorded. That’s our gift to you – no recycled, reused or Amazon Renewed content. Jumping into our first topic, Risc-V IP and silicon purveyor SiFive earned a $61 million investment from a group of high-end investors including SK Hynix,… Read More »SiFive’s Big Score, Will Nvidia Buy Arm?
Summer inventory clearance days for Radio Free HPC! We’re blasting through our processing backlog and getting the episodes out as fast as possible (but no faster). In this episode, we talk about the spate of MLperf benchmarks and how AMD hit it out of the park on their most recent earnings. We start the episode… Read More »MLperf Wars & AMD’s Gawdy Numbers
The show starts on a high note, with Henry’s audio being amazingly echo free. Usually we hear a lot of echo as Henry talks, which is due to the rammed earth walls of his new abode, plus the fact that there isn’t any carpeting or anything else to absorb his nasal tones. But somehow Henry… Read More »Is Amazon’s Graviton2 Ready for Prime (Time)?
ISC20 Smashing Online Success The RadioFreeHPC team looks back at the success that ISC20 was and discusses what attending an online-only conference was like. Big kudos and thanks to the ISC team who pulled off one grand challenge of re-planning and did it so well! Shahin offers his reflections on scheduling an online conference on… Read More »ISC, Student Cluster Competition Recap
Intel Optane Memory Nothing says HPC like having the performance cake and eating it too. In this episode, we drill down on what Intel is doing with their cool Optane tech, shooting for speeds that remind you of memory, sizes that look like storage, and costs that make it look like a deal, with real… Read More »The Persistence of Memory
VMware’s Bitfusion and Dell We start with team introductions, as usual, but drop a bombshell on listeners: we’re going to be missing Jessi for the next couple of months as she goes off to Marine Officers Candidate School – or as she calls it “screamy summer camp.” It’s sort of like an all-inclusive Sandals Resort.… Read More »Is it Time for Virtual GPUs?
VMware's Bitfusion and DellWe start with team introductions, as usual, but drop a bombshell on listeners: we’re going to be missing Jessi for the next couple of months as she goes off to Marine Officers Candidate School – or as she calls it “screamy summer camp.” It’s sort of like an all-inclusive Sandals Resort. You get your room, meals, drinks, plus many interesting activities and outings – plus thousands and thousands of push-ups. And to top it off, you’re nearly a Marine Corps officer when you’re done! We’re very proud of our Jessi and know she’s going to do great. In unrelated news, Henry reports in from Las Cruces, straight from his echoey bunker. He’d doing great in the new house.AI Anywhere, Anyone?Our main story this week concerns Dell’s integration of VMware and Bitfusion to provide “AI anywhere” type of infrastructure where any set of systems can get access to typically underutilized GPUs sitting anywhere on the network. This could mark the end of “GPU silos” in both enterprise and HPC data centers and lead to much better utilization of expensive GPU assets. The guys bat around the pros and cons of virtualization. Henry raises the point that not all applications will work right out of the box with this type of virtualization (or any virtualization, for that matter). The real key according to Henry is how much computation you need vs. how much data you need to move. So to justify the movement of data, the computational density of the job needs to be high. We kick these concepts back and forth and it’s a good and meaty discussion. Dan and Henry even violently agree a couple of times as we go through it. Amazing.Reasons Why No One Should Ever be Online. Ever. Russian agents have been attacking a critical part of the Exim Email Transfer Agent – which is very bad. This could allow a ‘man in the middle’ style exploit of emails passing through these systems. Or highly targeted attacks on individual organizations. This is why I’m starting to convert back to fax.Catch of the WeekJessi: Jessi’s catch of the week is, gasp, another podcast – and not ours! She heartily recommends that our listeners also listen to the Modern Figures podcast. Their motto: A podcast elevating the voices of black women in computing. Radio Free HPC approved and certified, so you have our permission to listen.Henry: Several European academic supercomputers have been hijacked in order to run crypto mining. It is unknown how much crypto they mined or the value of it. The attackers were particularly sophisticated when it came to covering their tracks, making the systems look like there wasn’t anything running when they were, in fact, furiously running crypto routines. Crafty stuff.Shahin: Gives a shout out for Hot Chips, a virtual event this year that will be held later this August. All of you who always wanted to attend and couldn't should take advantage of this. Either way, we'll probably do a post-show show to bring you the highlights of the event that's putting Silicon back into Silicon Valley.Dan: The US of A is back in space! Yay! Join us!* Download the MP3 * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter* Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS Feed * eMail us
18th Listener Awards! Run-of-the-mill start as we introduce the team. Henry has quite a bit of echo since he’s now firmly ensconced in his rammed earth survival compound. Big news this week! We finally received our 18th email in our first ever RadioFreeHPC email-to-win contest. First, let’s see what they win… The first item in… Read More »NSF, QIS Funding, But First…
18th Listener Awards!Run-of-the-mill start as we introduce the team. Henry has quite a bit of echo since he’s now firmly ensconced in his rammed earth survival compound.Big news this week! We finally received our 18th email in our first ever RadioFreeHPC email-to-win contest. First, let’s see what they win… The first item in our Grand Prize bundle is a circa 1999 suede leather IBM S/390 laptop bag. It’s roomy at a generous 16”x14”, large enough to house the biggest 17” laptop or maybe 15 or 20 tablets. If that’s not enough room, it also expands an additional 4-5” on the bottom. There are compartments galore under the flaps and you’d better fill them up with soft foam since there’s really no padding around the laptop compartment.The suede leather is a nice touch that adds weight to the bag, it’s not a lightweight in any sense of the word. We’d advise covering the bag if you’re going to be out in the weather, because the suede is sure to stain if it is exposed to water.This bag is in brand new condition and has never been used. Ever.The second piece of this cornucopia of delight is a IBM Mainframe 50th anniversary medallion. It’s a very light weight metal medallion housed in a stunningly clear plastic frame. Put it on your mantle at home and impress your friends and family with how important you must be to have such a keepsake.The final gift is a cassette tape of an IBM Talk S/390 episode covering S/390 integrated solutions. If you still have a cassette player, this will provide minutes of mainframe tech talk, marketing tips and keys to closing that big deal.So you want to know who won this amazing collection of swag? Listen to the show and find out, or follow us on Twitter and look a couple of weeks back!Government Bills Aim to Up the Ante for ScienceIn the rest of the show we discuss some recent government news. First is that the US House is looking to devote an additional $1.25 billion over the next five years. But even bigger is the proposal to expand the US National Science Foundation by $100 beeelion – which is more than 4x the size of the existing organization. We discuss the implications of this and how this might change the game in terms of base research. There is also a bill to significantly dial up funding for Quantum Information Science. All good and the team s excited to see these moves and hopes they'll proceed swimmingly!Reasons Why No One Should Ever be Online. Ever.Brace yourselves, GitHub has been attacked! Developers and users alike unaware that they’re downloading malware when they’re getting their open source on. Ouch.Catch of the WeekJessie: Campaign Zero and Police Scorecard aim at reducing police violence.Henry: UK broadband performance is holding up in these virus-rampant times. Yay for the UK, great job.Dan: Skinny gene discovered! Eat all you want and never gain weight. Is it true?Join us!* Download the MP3 * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter* Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS Feed * eMail us
Breaking News EditionWe have a new #1 on the TOP500 list of most powerful supercomputers! Big gets bigger by a factor of 2.8x as Fujitsu’s “Supercomputer Fugaku” tops the list at 415 PFlops. There are also an additional three new entries in the top ten. We break down the top of the list in this fascinating episode of RadioFreeHPC.Listen to us now! It will help you to amaze your friends and dismay your enemies with your newfound knowledge of the list. We have it here and first! Or at least not much later than others!Join us!* Download the MP3 * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter* Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS Feed * eMail us
Our Guest Today is… In this extraordinary episode of Radio Free HPC, the crew interviews the industry icon that is @HPC_Guru. This is the first time that anyone has been granted an interview with him and we’re proud to have been chosen for this honor. We posed an even dozen questions and received very thoughtful… Read More »@HPC_Guru Speaketh! Kind of.
Our Guest Today is...In this extraordinary episode of Radio Free HPC, the crew interviews the industry icon that is @HPC_Guru. This is the first time that anyone has been granted an interview with him and we’re proud to have been chosen for this honor.We posed an even dozen questions and received very thoughtful responses, which we rendered out in a machine voice in order to fit our podcast format. In the interview, HPC_Guru tells us his top five cool things in HPC today, why he remains anonymous, where he thinks HPC hardware will be in 10 years and who he thinks will be the first to reach exascale. And that’s just four of our 12 questions!We don’t have to tell you that @HPC_Guru is a legend in the industry, as is his Twitter account. He has more than 15,000 followers and has tweeted over 38,000 times. Just to put that in context, if his average tweet is 150 characters, then he’s tweeted 5.7 million characters. Or if you look at it as words, HPC Guru has beaten the hell out of Leon Tolstoy’s War & Peace. Tolstoy came up with a piddling 587,287 words in his novel while HPC Guru has written roughly 712,500 words – and HPC Guru has written about more difficult content. Supercomputing is much more complex than Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. While this is impressive, it’s not quite as many words/characters as Timothy Prickett Morgan writes in a typical year.If you printed up HPC Guru’s tweets, the tome would come in at more than four pounds, and that’s single spaced. That’s as much as a high-end laptop, including the storage and maybe even the power brick. Looking for another metric? If @HPC_Guru printed out each of his tweets, two per sheet of 8.5 by 11 inch paper, and laid them end to end, it would stretch a little over 3.3 MILES.Give this groundbreaking episode a listen, in fact, listen to it twice to get the full impact.Join us!* Download the MP3 * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter* Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS Feed * eMail us
New Book Makes Sense of Edge Computing After our typical inane opening, which includes an update on Henry’s Las Cruces bunker with 21” rammed earth walls, we get quickly down to business and begin our interview with very special guest, Dr. Cody Bumgardner, Assistant Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Kentucky.… Read More »HPC on the Edge
Edge Computing Book Makes Sense of It AllAfter our typical inane opening, which includes an update on Henry’s Las Cruces bunker with 21” rammed earth walls, we get quickly down to business and begin our interview with very special guest, Dr. Cody Bumgardner, Assistant Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Kentucky.Our topic? Edge computing, what it is, what is isn’t, and why it’s important. Cody has just authored a book “Making Sense of Edge Computing.”Dan starts us off with a question about the definition of edge computing, which as it turns out, covers a lot of ground. Henry comes in with a question about how 5G might impact edge computing and Shahin follows up by asking if 5G really has much to do with edge computing at all. There is some overlap, but 5G is a transmission mechanism rather than a computing mechanism, meaning that it’s the 5G device and what it is tasked to do that can make it either an edge device or not an edge device.As the show goes on, we talk about the edge capacity in place and what still needs to be built, along with current and potential use cases. A good time is had by all.Reasons Why No One Should Ever Be Online. Ever.Henry shocks us yet again with news that people are being scammed by work-at-home deals that are actually ‘money mule’ schemes to help criminals launder their ill-gotten gains. Dan seems a little too curious about the mechanics and potential pay-offs of these deals. Catch of the WeekJessi: Jessi is pointing out that she has now moved for the third time in one academic semester and that she has more books than anything else. Ouch.Henry: Henry is off yelling at his contractors when his turn comes up, so no catch from him this week.Shahin: Article about how to program Aurora, highly recommended by Shahin.Dan: Discusses how the ISC2020 Student Cluster Competition will be virtual this year. He’ll be covering it as usual, but with a LOT of Zoom. Every team is going to be using the same cluster, but sharing it. Stay tuned for more news.Join us!* Download the MP3 * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter* Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS Feed * eMail us
NOTE: The publication of this episode was delayed due to the untimely passing of our partner and pal Rich Brueckner. So what we’re announcing as “breaking news” isn’t so fresh today, but our takes on what NVIDIA’s new A100 processor brings to the table are still valid. Breaking News! This special edition of RadioFreeHPC… Read More »A is for Ampere, Nvidia A100’s Public Debut
NOTE: The publication of this episode was delayed due to the untimely passing of our partner and pal Rich Brueckner. So what we’re announcing as "breaking news" isn’t so fresh today, but our takes on what NVIDIA’s new A100 processor brings to the table are still valid. Breaking News! This special edition of RadioFreeHPC takes a deep dive into NVIDIA’s spanking new A100 GPU – which is an impressive achievement in processor-dom. The new chip is built with a 7nm process and weighs in at a hefty 54 billion transistors and capped at 400 Watts. It sports 6,912 FP32 CUDA cores, 3,456 FP64 CUDA cores and 422 Tensor cores.This 8th generation GPU, using what the company calls its Ampere technology, is a replacement for both their V100 GPU and Turing T4 processors, giving the company a single platform for both AI training and inferencing.We talk about the specs of the A100, breaking down its game both in terms of typical HPC FP64 processing and FP32 (and lower precision) computing for AI workloads. On the HPC side, the new GPU seems to offer an across the board 25% speedup, which is substantial. But the A100 really shines when it comes to tensor core performance which the company reports at an average speed up of 10x on Tensor Core 32 bit vs. V100 FP32.New features of the A100 include Sparsity (a mechanism that doubles sparse matrix performance), a much speedier NVLink (2x), and a hardware feature that allows the A100 to be partitioned into as many as 7 GPU instances to support individual workloads.All in all, this is an amazing new processor, a behemoth large and hot, but so fast, chip that is heavily tilted towards new AI and Tensor workloads with a passing but welcome nod to 64-bit HPC apps.Join us!* Download the MP3 * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter* Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify * Subscribe on Google Play * Subscribe on iTunes * RSS Feed * eMail us
by Dan Olds This is a tough blog to write for this RadioFreeHPC episode. This is the episode where we say a final goodbye to our co-founder and comrade in arms Rich Brueckner. Rich passed away suddenly last week leaving us shocked and shaken. The whole genesis of RFHPC came out of Rich and I… Read More »Tribute to Rich Brueckner, 1962-2020
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