NVIDIA’s GTC 2023 keynote was a whirlwind of exciting announcements, showcasing the company’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI and robotics. CEO Jensen Huang unveiled groundbreaking technologies, including the new Blackwell platform, advancements in robotics with Project GROOT, and collaborations with industry giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.
Blackwell: Redefining the GPU for the Generative AI Era
Blackwell isn’t just a new chip; it’s a complete platform designed to power the next generation of AI applications. This revolutionary architecture features two abutted dies that function as a single unit, boasting 208 billion transistors and 10 terabytes per second of data transfer. This eliminates memory locality and cache issues, creating a unified and powerful processing environment.
Blackwell will be available in two configurations: one compatible with existing HGX systems for seamless integration, and another featuring two Blackwell chips and four dies connected to a Grace CPU. This latter configuration represents a significant leap forward, offering unparalleled computational power and memory coherence in a compact form factor.
One of Blackwell’s key strengths is its focus on content token generation, a crucial element in generative AI. The platform introduces a new format called FP4, specifically designed to accelerate this process. Additionally, NVIDIA developed the MVY link switch, a 50 billion transistor chip enabling high-speed communication between GPUs. This allows for the creation of massive, exaflop-scale AI systems within a single rack.
Industry Leaders Embrace Blackwell and NVIDIA AI
Leading cloud providers and technology companies are lining up to integrate Blackwell and other NVIDIA AI solutions.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) is building the first GPU with secure AI and a 222 exaflop system, while also integrating NVIDIA technologies into various services like SageMaker AI, Bedrock AI, and Amazon Robotics.
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is optimizing its infrastructure for Blackwell and utilizing NVIDIA GPUs to accelerate data processing, Vertex AI, and robotics initiatives.
- Oracle is partnering with NVIDIA on DGX Cloud and accelerating Oracle Database performance.
- Microsoft Azure is collaborating with NVIDIA on a wide range of fronts, including CUDA acceleration, AI services, and the development of the largest NVIDIA InfiniBand supercomputer.
These partnerships highlight the widespread adoption of NVIDIA’s AI technologies and the transformative potential of Blackwell.
NIMS and Nemo Microservices: Simplifying AI Deployment and Development
NVIDIA also introduced NIMS (NVIDIA Inference Microservice), a pre-trained model package designed for easy deployment across NVIDIA’s vast install base. NIMS includes popular open-source models, optimized for various hardware configurations, and comes bundled with all necessary dependencies and APIs for seamless integration.
Complementing NIMS is the Nemo microservice, which assists with data curation and preparation for training AI models. Nemo also offers features for fine-tuning, guardrailing, and evaluating AI performance. Both NIMS and Nemo are accessible through NVIDIA AI Foundry, a platform connecting developers with essential tools and resources.
Project GROOT: Building the Future of Robotics
NVIDIA’s Project GROOT represents a significant step forward in robotics. This general-purpose foundation model for humanoid robots leverages multimodal instructions and past interactions to determine the robot’s next action. GROOT is trained in NVIDIA’s Isaac Sim, a physically-based simulation environment, and utilizes the new Jetson Thor robotics chips for unparalleled performance.
By connecting GROOT to large language models, robots can even interpret and respond to natural language instructions. This opens up exciting possibilities for human-robot interaction and collaboration. Check out this blog to read more on Humanoid robots
A Glimpse into the Future of AI
NVIDIA’s GTC 2023 announcements paint a clear picture of the company’s vision for the future of AI. With groundbreaking hardware like Blackwell, innovative software solutions like NIMS and Nemo, and advancements in robotics with Project GROOT, NVIDIA is paving the way for a future where AI plays an increasingly important role in our lives.