This cutting-edge AI supercomputer stands as the fastest of its kind in the UK today. It marks a groundbreaking fusion of AI and high-performance computing (HPC) technologies, showcasing the potential to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

Dawn Phase 1 is the cornerstone of the recently launched UK AI Research Resource (AIRR), demonstrating the nation’s commitment to exploring innovative systems and architectures.

This supercomputer brings the UK closer to achieving the exascale; a computing threshold of a quintillion (10^18) floating point operations per second. To put this into perspective, the processing power of an exascale system equals what every person on Earth would calculate in over four years if they were working non-stop, 24 hours a day.

Operational at the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab, Dawn utilises Dell PowerEdge XE9640 servers, providing an unparalleled platform for the Intel Data Center GPU Max Series accelerator. This collaboration ensures a diverse ecosystem through oneAPI, fostering an environment of choice.

The system’s capabilities extend across various domains, including healthcare, engineering, green fusion energy, climate modelling, cosmology, and high-energy physics.

Adam Roe, EMEA HPC technical director at Intel, said:

“Dawn considerably strengthens the scientific and AI compute capability available in the UK and it’s on the ground and operational today at the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab.

Dell PowerEdge XE9640 servers offer a no-compromises platform to host the Intel Data Center GPU Max Series accelerator, which opens up the ecosystem to choice through oneAPI.

I’m very excited to see the sorts of early science this machine can deliver and continue to strengthen the Open Zettascale Lab partnership between Dell Technologies, Intel, and the University of Cambridge, and further broaden that to the UK scientific and AI community.”

Glimpse into the future

Dawn Phase 1 is not just a standalone achievement; it’s part of a broader strategy.

The collaborative endeavour aims to deliver a Phase 2 supercomputer in 2024, promising tenfold performance levels. This progression would propel the UK’s AI capability, strengthening the successful industry partnership.

The supercomputer’s technical foundation lies in Dell PowerEdge XE9640 servers, renowned for their versatile configurations and efficient liquid cooling technology. This innovation ensures optimal handling of AI and HPC workloads, offering a more effective solution than traditional air-cooled systems.

Tariq Hussain, Head of UK Public Sector at Dell, commented:

“Collaborations like the one between the University of Cambridge, Dell Technologies and Intel, alongside strong inward investment, are vital if we want the compute to unlock the high-growth AI potential of the UK. It is paramount that the government invests in the right technologies and infrastructure to ensure the UK leads in AI and exascale-class simulation capability.

It’s also important to embrace the full spectrum of the technology ecosystem, including GPU diversity, to ensure customers can tackle the growing demands of generative AI, industrial simulation modelling and ground-breaking scientific research.”

As the world awaits the full technical details and performance numbers of Dawn Phase 1 – slated for release in mid-November during the Supercomputing 23 (SC23) conference in Denver, Colorado – the UK stands at the precipice of a transformative era in scientific and AI research.

This collaboration between industry giants and academia not only accelerates research discovery but also propels the UK’s knowledge economy to new heights.

(Image Credit: Joe Bishop for Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab)

See also: UK paper highlights AI risks ahead of global Safety Summit

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These industry applications can be similar to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Take underground mining, for instance, with its remote control and driverless equipment functions and the need to gather insights on predictive maintenance and energy management. Computers in these conditions must operate reliably under vibration, shock, and hot temperatures.

Seventy-five percent of data is forecasted to process outside the cloud by 2025, according to Gartner. Organizations need features in their servers such as higher performance, less data latency, and remote manageability.

Alongside withstanding extreme conditions, ruggedized edge platforms require various other functionality. The platforms need to perform real-time processing through an array of performance accelerators, offer sufficient storage capacity, and have rich I/O ports to be compatible with new and legacy machines. 

In collaboration with Arrow, Dell’s PowerEdge XR11 and XR12 servers aim to offer enterprise compute capabilities in the harshest edge environments. On the performance side, the XR12 is the more expandable of the two, coming across in its third-generation Intel Xeon scalable processors and GPU options, with support for up to two NVIDIA T4 cards or two of the A100, A10, or A40 GPUs, and flexible I/O choices. Storage for the XR11 and XR12 includes the Intel Optane Persistent Memory 200 series. At 16 inches, the chassis can maintain performance while being less than half the depth of a standard server. 

“The servers help OEM customers address the edge computing challenges faced outside the data center,” Dell notes. “Businesses can move workloads to the network edge and run AI algorithms to analyze and act on data near where it’s generated, reducing latency and providing quicker access to data for real-time decision making, saving time and money.”

By bringing computing power to the edge, innovative enterprises realize that a mix of centralized cloud and distributed edge environments are essential. Meanwhile, innovative vendors can now get data center-class performance right where the action is for their customers’ increasing edge deployments. Arrow can provide customized Dell solutions for enterprises that wish to take the next step, going through the entire lifecycle, from ideation development, prototyping, manufacturing, and global distribution.

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