Pure Storage, Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) has built a next generation artificial intelligence (AI) High Performance Computing (HPC) Center to meet its high-intensity AI computing needs. Funded by the Macau Science and Technology Development Fund, the center has been officially launched and will be used to improve the quality of teaching and research, cultivate future talents, promote a smart campus, and inject new energy into the metropolitan’s smart city endeavor.
MUST’s AI HPC Platform
The new HPC center provides an enhanced environment for teaching and research, and these improvements are realized in three ways:
- High performance computing capabilities: The performance of scientific computing, such as deep learning and machine learning, is significantly improved thanks to the powerful parallel processing capabilities of the GPU’s. The performance of the three DGX-series supercomputers are equipped with 32 NVIDIA V100 cards, reaching 4 PETAFLOPS (4×1015), or 4 quadrillion floating-point computing per second. Such improved performance enables faster simulation and analysis results.
- High-performance storage: The center is equipped with a high-capacity, high-speed SSD flash storage system to support big data analysis, making seamless AI research computing of different types possible. The current read and write speeds are up to 7GB / seconds or 160K NFS IOPS, and it can be upgraded to 150GB / seconds or 24M NFS IOPS in the future. The high performance of the storage system can significantly improve the speed of data analysis and the optimization of computing resources.
- High stability and reliability: All systems are connected to 100GB high availability network switches and are supported by a large-capacity backup power supply UPS and a complete dual air-conditioning system. In addition, the HPC center has 24/7 software support as well as field support from Automated Systems. The HPC center is built on a highly stable and reliable system to ensure peace and security for researchers to focus on their academic research and development.
“To support the development of a smart city, MUST has been dedicated to the research and advancement of a smart campus in recent years.” says Professor Du Zhang Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology of MUST. “The newly opened AI HPC Center can enhance the AI research in MUST, including machine learning, big data technology, industrial intelligence and automation, and smart city, etc. The AI computing platform at the HPC center offers extraordinary reliability, performance and scalability. It is believed to be the largest AI computing center in Macau.
MUST strives to join hands with industry leaders to support the SAR government’s smart city initiative and provide a better environment for academic studies. The in-depth collaboration between MUST and IT industry leaders on the HPC center represents the level of importance of AI recognized by both academic and businesses. The HPC center provides researchers with the key equipment and resources they require for their research and development. MUST will continue to maintain a long-term working relationship with Automated Systems (Macau), NVIDIA, and Pure Storage in an effort to train innovative talents for “Smart Macau”.