New Intel accelerators pave the way for ginormous new AI models
Intel has lifted the lid on a second generation of Gaudi accelerators that could reduce the time it takes to train large-scale AI models significantly.
Announced at Intel Vision 2022 in Dallas, the Gaudi 2 processors are built on a 7nm process, feature 24 integrated 100GbE RoCE ports and boast the largest quantity of memory of any accelerator on the market (96GB HBM2e).
The new processors are a product of Israel-based Habana Labs, which was absorbed by Intel back in 2019, and are designed for servers dedicated to deep learning workloads.
Training AI models
In recent years, a number of large-scale natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision models have emerged, delivering performance far superior to previous entries in the respective disciplines.
The problem is that training these multi-billion parameter models is incredibly compute intensive, and therefore expensive and time-consuming, a limiting factor in the development of the technology.
However, with the new Gaudi 2 accelerators, both the cost and time it takes to develop sophisticated new AI models will be cut significantly, Intel says.
According to Eltan Medina, COO at Habana, price to performance ratio is a key factor for customers, and was therefore made a priority during the development of the second-generation accelerators.
Benchmarks presented at Intel Visions suggest Gaudi 2 processors deliver roughly 2x the training throughput across popular NLP and vision workloads (BERT and Restnet-50), as compared with Nvidia’s A100 GPU.
At the same time, the new Gaudi chips are said to deliver a circa 40% cost saving across both workload types, again in comparison with A100 GPUs.
“Intel is advancing AI and the value for data center customers with Habana accelerators, which are the optimal solution for servers dedicated to deep learning,” said Medina. “We believe this category will be incredibly important.”
Gaudi 2 processors are available to customers immediately, and are also likely to underpin cloud instances from AWS further down the line, as with the previous generation.
Audio player loading… Intel has lifted the lid on a second generation of Gaudi accelerators that could reduce the time it takes to train large-scale AI models significantly. Announced at Intel Vision 2022 in Dallas, the Gaudi 2 processors are built on a 7nm process, feature 24 integrated 100GbE RoCE…
Recent Posts
- Google is giving Android users hands-free navigation and a way to talk with emojis
- Quordle today – hints and answers for Friday, May 17 (game #844)
- NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Friday, May 17 (game #75)
- iMessage is having some issues today
- Google’s Gemini AI plan for schools promises extra data protection and privacy
Archives
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011