Why is high-performance computing needed? (Market drivers of high-performance computing)
HPC applications are rapidly spreading from “high-end” industries to more industries and applications. The continuous deepening of digitalization and informatization has led to higher requirements for information processing capabilities and computing performance. The emergence of big data analysis driven by massive data has increased the demand for computing and storage capabilities. The “Intelligence +” concept has raised the demand for computing infrastructure. As the supporting platform and infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning, HPC’s demand is increasing with the further development of AI and deep learning.
Dell EMC HPC/AI Key Technologies
The Dell EMC HPC/HPDA team, based on the specific requirements of different industries and users for HPC/HPDA, simplified the deployment of HPC/HPDA solutions, further optimized the technical aspects of these solutions, and launched product portfolios and solutions that meet the needs of various applications.
HPC/HPDA infrastructure
Including management nodes/login nodes, computing nodes, management network/I/O network, storage, cluster management software/task scheduling software, etc.
High performance server
Dell EMC offers flexible and high-performance server options. The PowerEdge C6320p and PowerEdge C4130 serve as high-performance computing modules, simplifying the deployment, management and operation of high-performance computing; blade servers provide users with high-density and low-energy consumption high-performance server options.
High-performance networks
In response to the network requirements of enterprises and research institutions during the deployment of high-performance computing, Dell EMC offers flexible high-performance network options; Dell EMC provides high-performance networks based on the Intel Omni-Path architecture; Dell EMC also offers 100Gb high-speed and low-latency networks with the Mellanox EDR InfiniBand architecture.
High-performance storage
Dell EMC offers users a variety of storage solution options: a distributed storage solution based on Intel Lustre parallel file system; and a storage solution based on the NFS standard.
High-performance management
Dell EMC collaborates with Bright Compute to simplify the application of deep learning. Through cluster management software, they manage the IT infrastructure, configure and manage deep learning frameworks and tool libraries, helping customers build simple, user-friendly and scalable deep learning systems.
High-performance consulting services
The Dell EMC professional consulting team offers consulting services covering applications, business processes, and infrastructure, as well as deployment services, remote management services, and technical support. They also provide service solutions in mobile and security areas, along with telephone and on-site support.
Deep learning platform based on HPC
Dell EMC and the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have jointly established an enterprise-level deep learning application and service platform called “Zuoji • Shenzhi”. Dell EMC provides a one-stop solution including hardware, software and professional services. The services offered by this platform include basic algorithms, industry applications, and customized services. It features ease of use, intelligent management, security control, customized services, high concurrent performance, and continuous scalability.
Dell EMC HPC/AI Advantages and Value
Dell EMC collaborates with leading global partners to build an HPC ecosystem and create verified end-to-end solutions. Based on industry-standard Dell EMC products and partner products and services, it offers flexible high-performance product and solution options such as high-performance modules, high-density modules, cluster storage, and high-performance networks for enterprises of all sizes, protecting their IT investments. In addition, Dell EMC’s consulting service advantages and pre-installed optimization of HPC solutions ensure the rapid deployment and implementation of HPC solutions. Moreover, through cooperation with Bright Computing, Dell EMC simplifies deep learning applications, improves application development efficiency, and achieves centralized and transparent monitoring and management.
Dell EMC HPC/AI Typical Application Scenarios
Research field: Application of HPC
HPC systems used for scientific research not only require high-performance computing capabilities and strong scalability (to enable node addition, system expansion and upgrade), but also need high-speed storage, 10-gigabit Ethernet switches, parallel file systems, cluster management systems, etc. Therefore, HPC solutions suitable for research fields should help research institutions quickly develop HPC systems based on the unique requirements of various workloads, to conduct complex scientific analyses and provide important support for universities and research institutions to complete scientific innovation. Dell EMC offers outstanding performance and flexibility for HPC systems of research institutions, supporting various different architectures, computing, accelerators and storage options. Its modular design can customize the system according to the specific workloads of users.
Application of High-Performance Computing in Life Sciences
In recent years, life sciences have been widely applied in medical health, agricultural development, drug research and other fields, which have raised new requirements for computing performance and high-concurrency storage performance. For instance, in gene sequencing analysis, the number of gene sequences is huge. Homology search, comparison, analysis, genetic development analysis of genes require the analysis and calculation of massive, complex and variable data. Therefore, HPC needs to be used for the statistics and analysis of gene data. Gene sequencing analysis has very high requirements for the computing performance, memory capacity, data bandwidth of high-performance computers. Dell EMC, in response to the HPC needs of the life science field based on global best practices, has launched the Dell EMC Life Science HPC solution, which can help bioinformatics centers and genetics centers economically and quickly convert gene analysis into clinical treatment plans, while ensuring compliance and protecting confidential data.
Application of HPC in the manufacturing industry
Intelligent manufacturing has become a new market driving force, promoting the productization process of Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence in the Chinese market. HPC has become the core technical support for the transformation of manufacturing towards service-oriented and the improvement of manufacturing technology level, through intelligentization to achieve industrial upgrading. Dell EMC, in response to the needs of the manufacturing industry, provides various workstations to meet 3D design, virtual reality design, combined with clusters or both used together, simplifying manufacturing scenarios and customer simulation design. Through structural analysis and computational fluid dynamics analysis, it improves design efficiency and production quality. Dell EMC can pre-optimize the overall solution according to user needs, optimize the system for specific application sets, and many professional application software have been verified on this system. For the HPC needs of the manufacturing industry, Dell EMC provides users with flexible high-performance technology options, as well as end-to-end solutions and services, to help China’s manufacturing achieve intelligent upgrading.
Application of Deep Learning on High-Performance Computing
Currently, deep learning technology has been applied to many practical problems, such as autonomous driving, photo positioning, real-time speech translation, automatic email reply, facial recognition, etc., all of which fall within the scope of deep learning research. Deep learning is mostly based on the processing of massive data and requires strong computing processing capabilities. The research and development of artificial intelligence need to rely on powerful HPC platforms. Deep learning involves data preparation processing, feature engineering, modeling, parameter tuning, etc. Dell EMC has established an end-to-end deep learning HPC platform to simplify the complete deep learning process from data preparation to analysis and training results. For deep learning, Dell EMC provides flexible HPC technology frameworks, products, services and professional skills. Dell EMC and the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly built the deep learning application and service platform “Zuoji • Shenzhi”, which provides enterprises with big data mining solutions and computing platforms based on deep learning.