NVIDIA Taps Mellanox for Ethernet, InfiniBand
NVIDIA will leverage Mellanox Technologies Ltd.’s Ethernet and InfiniBand solutions to accelerate its DGX-2 artificial intelligence system, the companies revealed today. The DGX-2 AI solution is a 2 petaflop system combining 16 GPUs and eight Mellanox ConnectX adapters.
“We are excited to collaborate with NVIDIA and to bring the performance advantages of our EDR InfiniBand and 100 gigabit Ethernet to the new DGX-2 Artificial Intelligence platform,” said Gilad Shainer, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “Doubling the network throughput as compared to previous systems to provide overall bi-directional 1600 gigabit per second data speed enables the DGX-2 platform to analyze growing amounts of data, and to dramatically improve Deep Learning application performance.”
A March AnandTech article explains that the $400,000 DGX-2 can act as a powerful server, pool the memory of all 16 GPUs, keep in-memory workloads that would be too large for an 8-GPU cluster, and complete the training process for FAIRSEQ – which is 10 times faster than a DGX-1 system.
Forbes says NVIDIA wants to add power and functionality to medical imaging instruments by adding AI into the mix. The media company added that NVIDIA has existing partnerships with an array of health care equipment companies.
Indeed. NVIDIA has a page on its website discussing how AI is reshaping the healthcare, life sciences, and medicine arenas. “GPU-accelerated deep learning solutions can be used to design more sophisticated neural networks for healthcare and medical research applications—from real-time pathology assessment to point-of-care interventions to predictive analytics for clinical decision-making,” the company explains. “Innovations in AI are advancing the future of precision medicine and population health management in unbelievable ways.”
Accenture says AI can be an engine for growth in the health care arena. And it forecasts that acquisitions of AI startups are rapidly increasing and the health AI market is poised for 40 percent CAGR through 2021.
Edited by Mandi Nowitz
