ABCI (AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure) is a new cloud-like supercomputer being designed and procured by the AI Research Center (AIRC), which is a newly established research center focusing on AI research within the Japanese National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology- the largest research lab in Japan. The goal is to create and operate a large-scale supercomputer matching the sizes of largest HPC-oriented supercomputers of today, but focusing on AI and data analytics applications to bootstrap advanced AI research and businesses in Japan. The associated HW and SW architectures will be optimized for accelerating machine learning and data manipulation and analytics, but there is substantial leveraging of state-of-the-art HPC components and architectures today. ABCI is currently undergoing design and procurement process, and will be deployed late 2017 ~ early 2018. Some of the salient design points are as follows:
• Big Data and HPC converged modern design • Extreme computing power • Ultra high-bandwidth and low latency in memory, network, and storage • Big Data/AI and HPC Software Stack Convergence • Commoditizing modern supercomputer design for IDC hosting---Building own datacenter dedicated to ABCI
The talk will describe details of the ABCI design, the motivation regarding its inception, as well as its goals, serving as an “alternative” supercomputer design we are transcending into today.
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