Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

An Engineer Recalls How AI Broke the Exascale Barrier

19/10/2021

Thorsten Kurth still remembers the night he discovered his team broke the exascale barrier.

On the couch at home at 9 p.m., he was pouring over the latest results from one of the first big jobs run on Summit, then the world's top supercomputer, based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The 12-person team had spent nights and weekends seeking a way that AI could track hundreds of hurricanes and atmospheric rivers buried in terabytes of historical climate data.

Only a few weeks earlier, their software failed to run on more than 64 of the system's nodes.

But this time - just two days before a paper on the work was due - it exercised 4,560 of Summit's 4,608 nodes to deliver the results. In the process, it achieved 1.13 exaflops of mixed-precision AI performance.

That was a good feeling, a lot of hard work paid off, recalled Kurth of the work he led while at Lawrence Berkeley Lab in 2018.

Entering the Exascale Era Today, we celebrate the work of everyone who's cracked a quintillion operations per second.

That's a billion billion or 10 to the 18th power. That's why we mark Exascale Day on Oct. 18.

About the same time Kurth's team was completing its work, researchers at Oak Ridge also entered the exascale era, hitting 1.8, then 2.36 exaflops on Summit, analyzing genomics to better understand the nature of opioid addiction.

COVID-19 Ignites Exascale Work Since then, many others have pushed the limits of science with GPUs.

In March 2020, the Folding@home project put out a call for donations of free cycles on home computers to run research examining the COVID-19 virus.

Ten days later their virtual, distributed system surpassed 1.5 exaflops, creating a crowd-sourced exascale supercomputer fueled in part by more than 356,000 NVIDIA GPUs.

AI Supercomputing Goes Global Today, academic and commercial labs worldwide are deploying a new generation of accelerated supercomputers capable of exascale-class AI.

The latest is Polaris, a system Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is building at Argonne National Lab capable of up to 1.4 AI exaflops. Researchers will use it to advance cancer treatments, explore clean energy and push the limits of physics, work that will be accelerated by 2,240 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs.

Another powerful system stands on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Perlmutter uses 6,159 A100 GPUs to deliver nearly 4 exaflops of AI performance for more than 7,000 researchers working on projects that include drawing the largest 3D map of the visible universe to date.

Polaris and Perlmutter also use NVIDIA's software tools to help researchers prototype exascale applications.

Europe Erects Exascale AI Infrastructure Atos will build an even larger AI supercomputer for Italy's CINECA research center. Leonardo will pack 14,000 A100 GPUs on an NVIDIA Quantum 200Gb/s InfiniBand network to hit up to 10 exaflops of AI performance.

It's one of eight systems in a regional network that backers call an engine to power Europe's data economy.

One of Europe's largest AI-capable supercomputers is slated to come online in Switzerland in 2023. Alps will be built by HPE at the Swiss National Computing Center using NVIDIA GPUs and Grace, our first data center CPU. It's expected to scale to heights up to 20 AI exaflops.

An Industrial HPC Revolution Begins The move to high-performance AI extends beyond academic labs.

Advances in deep learning combined with the simulation technology of accelerated computing has put us at the beginnings of an industrial HPC revolution, said NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang in a keynote earlier this year.

Selene uses a modular architecture based on the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD NVIDIA was an early player in this trend.

In the first days of the pandemic, we commissioned Selene, currently ranked as the world's fastest industrial supercomputer. It helps train autonomous vehicles, refine conversational AI techniques and more.

In June, Tesla Inc. unveiled its own industrial HPC system to train deep neural networks for its electric cars. It packs 5,760 NVIDIA GPUs to deliver up to 1.8 exaflops.

Beyond the Numbers Three years after winning a Gordon Bell award for breaking the exascale barrier, Kurth, now a senior software engineer at NVIDIA, sees the real fruit of his team's labors.

Improved versions of the AI model they pioneered are now available online for any climate scientist to use. They handle in an hour what used to take weeks. Governments can use them to plan budgets for disaster response.

In the end, Exascale Day is all about the people, because to succeed at this level, you need an excellent team with specialists who understand every aspect of what you are trying to do, Kurth said.
LINK: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/10/18/exascale-day-ai/...
See more stories from nvidia

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

21/07/2026

High Interest, limited resources: AI in Mongolia's newsrooms

New research involving a cross-section of Mongolias independent media landscape finds enthusiasm for AI as a tool to improve efficiency, sustainability and resi...

21/07/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: The Firsts, Breakthroughs, and Lasting Legacies

With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...

21/07/2026

NHL Launches Centralized Production Operation for Regional Broadcasts; Four Teams Aboard To Start

In a time of disarray in regional sports broadcasting, the league will provide c...

21/07/2026

With Boland Monitors, NEPs PGA TOUR Unit Ready for Future

When NEP designed one of its largest recurring mobile production unit fleets for PGA TOUR coverage, the leading media services provider faced a familiar challe...

21/07/2026

elysia Channex Studio now available

High-end analogue channel strip boasts plug-in recall Originally revealed as a prototype back at NAMM 2024, the Channex Studio channel strip represented a b...

21/07/2026

Musik Hack announce HyFi mastering platform

Relies on same DSP as plug-in range Musik Hack's line-up has been influenced heavily by founder Stan Greene's work as a mixing engineer, and their M...

21/07/2026

Dirty Boy Jr. Series from Warm Audio

Official collaboration with boutique builder Dirty Boy Pedals Warm Audio have just announced the launch of a new guitar pedal range created in collaboration...

21/07/2026

SBS scores biggest ever FIFA World Cup Reach as Spain triumph in the final

SBS scores biggest ever FIFA World Cup Reach as Spain triumph in the final 21 July, 2026 Media releases Spain v Argentina attracted a Total TV reach of al...

21/07/2026

Rohde & Schwarz showcases broad range of EMC test solutions at EMC+SIPI 2026 in Dallas, Texas

Rohde & Schwarz showcases broad range of EMC test solutions at EMC SIPI 2026 in ...

21/07/2026

TVP Claims Top Spot as the World Cup and the Opole Music Festival Drive June Viewership in Poland

Warner Bros. Discovery's unbroken lead is interrupted as sports and live mus...

21/07/2026

Savannah Bananas Tap Calrec to Expand Banana Ball TV Coverage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

Where Growth Takes Root Viaccess-Orca Showcases the Found...

Across the TV and streaming ecosystem, industry players face mounting pressure to do more with less. They must simplify operations, protect premium content and ...

21/07/2026

Tuxera breaks performance ceilings and brings SMB/NFS mul...

Tuxera, a leading prover of quality-assured file systems and networking technologies, is bringing its latest advances in connectivity performance to the media w...

21/07/2026

COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package

COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package Brie Clayton July 21, 2026 0 Comments HIRING: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP ...

21/07/2026

Cinegy directly addresses the real issues of software-def...

Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, will use its presence at IBC2026 (stand 7.A01, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) to...

21/07/2026

Calrec brings leading audio solutions and long term busin...

Calrec will be located in Hall 8, on Stand C47 Beyond bigger For years, broadcast facilities were built around one assumption: provision for the biggest pro...

21/07/2026

Pebble takes the next step towards the future of media de...

Pebble, the leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, will discuss its future-facing developments for the new generation of medi...

21/07/2026

nxtedition Brings Production, AI and Automation Together...

nxtedition returns to IBC2026 with its consolidated production platform, showing how scripting, editing, graphics, AI-assisted tools and automation can work wit...

21/07/2026

Big Blue Marble brings C2PA Content Credentials to Cloud...

C2PA content signing helps broadcasters, public institutions, and publishers give audiences a verifiable record of where their video content came from and how i...

21/07/2026

HDHomeRun Enables Operation During Internet Outages

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

Calif. Federal Judge Pauses Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

AWARN Rebuts Weigel Claims of 3.0 EAS Problems

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for August Open Meeting

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

VIDA Introduces QC Manager for Collaborative Quality Cont...

New capability centralizes collaboration, feedback, security and status tracking within VIDA, providing a structured, auditable approach to master quality contr...

21/07/2026

Lightcraft Launches Exclusive Spark Story Beta for Filmmakers and Creators at SIGGRAPH 2026

Lightcraft Launches Exclusive Spark Story Beta for Filmmakers and Creators at SI...

21/07/2026

Indie Road Movie Where in the Hell Shot with Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

Indie Road Movie Where in the Hell Shot with Pocket Cinema Camera 4K Brie Clayton July 20, 2026 0 Comments Colorist blends vintage film looks to shape...

21/07/2026

Which USS Defiant Pulse Phaser effect is better?

Which USS Defiant Pulse Phaser effect is better? Graham Quince July 20, 2026 0 Comments Aargh, ever since @DarkRavenProductions posted a comment ask...

21/07/2026

X-Rite Pantone and NIFT Partner to Build Color Management Skills for India's Fashion and Textile Workforce

X-Rite Pantone and NIFT Partner to Build Color Management Skills for India's...

21/07/2026

Bluepeak Taps Harmonic to Speed Up Fiber Rollout and Expand into MDUs

Harmonics cOS Virtualized Broadband Platform and Pearl Remote OLTs Enable Flexible PON Migration, While SeaStar Optical Node Powers Cost-Effective Multi-Gigabit...

21/07/2026

From Lens to Pixel: Why Connected Workflows Are the Future of Live Venue Production

Every live event starts with a defining moment. A camera captures the game-winni...

21/07/2026

Built for Vera Rubin, NVIDIA Spectrum-6 Arrives in Gigascale AI Factories

AI has entered the gigascale era. The world's most advanced AI factories are bringing together hundreds of thousands of GPUs and CPUs to train frontier mod...

21/07/2026

NVIDIA Vera Rubin Driving Performance Per Watt, Lowest Token Cost for Partners Worldwide

NVIDIA Vera Rubin is here, and it's going gigascale. Vera Rubin NVL72 produ...

21/07/2026

RT announces biggest ever year for new drama

160 hours of Irish storytelling for 2026 KIN and The Walsh Sisters return RT has today unveiled its most ambitious drama slate ever, with a record-breakin...

20/07/2026

SVG All-Stars: Rob Coons, Senior Director, StudentU, Big Ten Network

The former Northwestern broadcast-operations leader is helping train the next generation of live-sports-production talent across the Big Ten The sports-product...

20/07/2026

Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Stacey Lee, the Filmmaker Behind Murder 101

By Lucy Spicer One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. Whi...

20/07/2026

Graph Tech Guitar Labs open UK Online Store

Product range now readily available in the UK Graph Tech Guitar Labs have just announced the launch of a new UK Online Store that makes it quicker and easie...

20/07/2026

Audeze launch the Maxwell 2 ANC

Popular headset gains active noise cancellation The Maxwell headet was Audeze's first foray into the gaming world, and thanks to its Dolby Atmos compati...

20/07/2026

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) Call for Public Screening funding applications for Cycle 1, 2026/27 financial year is Open

The NFVF, an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, has released t...

20/07/2026

Telemundo Inks Another Major U.S. Spanish-Language Soccer Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/07/2026

HDHomeRun Enables Operation During An Internet Outage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/07/2026

Starfish highlights flexible, scalable transport stream p...

Starfish Technologies will use IBC2026 to showcase the flexibility of its transport stream processing software, including the latest versions of TS Splicer (Win...

20/07/2026

Bitfocus makes the connections at IBC2026

Bitfocus, the specialist in media control and monitoring, will show at IBC2026 (Elgato stand 8.D31, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) how its Buttons control la...

20/07/2026

Mediagenix Introduces Trusted Agentic AI Operating Model...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced new AI capabilities that e...

20/07/2026

Big Blue Marble Cloud DRM nominated for Streaming Media R...

Big Blue Marble's Cloud DRM has been nominated in the DRM/Content Protection category of the 2026 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards. Only four pro...

20/07/2026

Sky brings free global roaming to millions of loyal customers when they choose Sky Mobile

Monday 20 July 2026 Sky brings free global roaming to millions of loyal custome...

20/07/2026

Red Seat Ventures Announces Introduction of Premium Creator and Podcast Communities to Amazon DSP

Red Seat Ventures Announces Introduction of Premium Creator and Podcast Communit...