Japan Boosts AI Sovereignty with Cutting-Edge ABCI 3.0 Supercomputer

Enhancing
Japan’s
AI
sovereignty
and
strengthening
its
research
and
development
capabilities,
Japan’s
National
Institute
of
Advanced
Industrial
Science
and
Technology
(AIST)
will
integrate
thousands
of
NVIDIA
H200
Tensor
Core
GPUs
into
its
AI
Bridging
Cloud
Infrastructure
3.0
supercomputer
(ABCI
3.0),
according
to
NVIDIA
Blog.
The
HPE
Cray
XD
system
will
feature
NVIDIA
Quantum-2
InfiniBand
networking
for
superior
performance
and
scalability.

ABCI
3.0:
A
New
Era
for
Japanese
AI
Research
and
Development

ABCI
3.0
is
the
latest
iteration
of
Japan’s
large-scale
Open
AI
Computing
Infrastructure
designed
to
advance
AI
R&D.
This
collaboration
underlines
Japan’s
commitment
to
advancing
its
AI
capabilities
and
fortifying
its
technological
independence.

“In
August
2018,
we
launched
ABCI,
the
world’s
first
large-scale
open
AI
computing
infrastructure,”
said
AIST
Executive
Officer
Yoshio
Tanaka.
“Building
on
our
experience
over
the
past
several
years
managing
ABCI,
we’re
now
upgrading
to
ABCI
3.0.
In
collaboration
with
NVIDIA
and
HPE,
we
aim
to
develop
ABCI
3.0
into
a
computing
infrastructure
that
will
advance
further
research
and
development
capabilities
for
generative
AI
in
Japan.”

“As
generative
AI
prepares
to
catalyze
global
change,
it’s
crucial
to
rapidly
cultivate
research
and
development
capabilities
within
Japan,”
added
AIST
Solutions
Co.
Producer
and
Head
of
ABCI
Operations
Hirotaka
Ogawa.
“I’m
confident
that
this
major
upgrade
of
ABCI
in
our
collaboration
with
NVIDIA
and
HPE
will
enhance
ABCI’s
leadership
in
domestic
industry
and
academia,
propelling
Japan
towards
global
competitiveness
in
AI
development
and
serving
as
the
bedrock
for
future
innovation.”

NVIDIA’s
Commitment
to
Japan’s
Future

NVIDIA
is
closely
collaborating
with
Japan’s
Ministry
of
Economy,
Trade
and
Industry
(METI)
on
research
and
education
following
a
visit
last
year
by
company
founder
and
CEO,
Jensen
Huang,
who
met
with
political
and
business
leaders,
including
Japanese
Prime
Minister
Fumio
Kishida,
to
discuss
the
future
of
AI.

Huang
pledged
to
collaborate
on
research,
particularly
in
generative
AI,
robotics,
and
quantum
computing,
to
invest
in
AI
startups,
and
provide
product
support,
training,
and
education
on
AI.

During
his
visit,
Huang
emphasized
that
“AI
factories”
—
next-generation
data
centers
designed
to
handle
the
most
computationally
intensive
AI
tasks
—
are
crucial
for
turning
vast
amounts
of
data
into
intelligence.
“The
AI
factory
will
become
the
bedrock
of
modern
economies
across
the
world,”
Huang
said
during
a
meeting
with
the
Japanese
press
in
December.

The
system
is
expected
to
come
online
by
the
end
of
this
year
and
offer
state-of-the-art
AI
research
and
development
resources.
It
will
be
housed
in
Kashiwa,
near
Tokyo.

Unmatched
Computing
Performance
and
Efficiency

The
facility
will
offer:

• 6
  AI
  exaflops
  of
  computing
  capacity,
  a
  measure
  of
  AI-specific
  performance
  without
  sparsity
• 410
  double-precision
  petaflops,
  a
  measure
  of
  general
  computing
  capacity
• Each
  node
  is
  connected
  via
  the
  Quantum-2
  InfiniBand
  platform
  at
  200GB/s
  of
  bisectional
  bandwidth.

NVIDIA
technology
forms
the
backbone
of
this
initiative,
with
hundreds
of
nodes
each
equipped
with
8
NVLink-connected
H200
GPUs
providing
unprecedented
computational
performance
and
efficiency.

NVIDIA
H200
is
the
first
GPU
to
offer
over
140
gigabytes
(GB)
of
HBM3e
memory
at
4.8
terabytes
per
second
(TB/s).
The
H200’s
larger
and
faster
memory
accelerates
generative
AI
and
LLMs,
while
advancing
scientific
computing
for
HPC
workloads
with
better
energy
efficiency
and
lower
total
cost
of
ownership.

The
integration
of
advanced
NVIDIA
Quantum-2
InfiniBand
with
In-Network
computing
—
where
networking
devices
perform
computations
on
data,
offloading
the
work
from
the
CPU
—
ensures
efficient,
high-speed,
low-latency
communication,
crucial
for
handling
intensive
AI
workloads
and
vast
datasets.

ABCI
boasts
world-class
computing
and
data
processing
power,
serving
as
a
platform
to
accelerate
joint
AI
R&D
with
industries,
academia,
and
governments.

METI’s
substantial
investment
is
a
testament
to
Japan’s
strategic
vision
to
enhance
AI
development
capabilities
and
accelerate
the
use
of
generative
AI.

By
subsidizing
AI
supercomputer
development,
Japan
aims
to
reduce
the
time
and
costs
of
developing
next-generation
AI
technologies,
positioning
itself
as
a
leader
in
the
global
AI
landscape.

Image
source:
Shutterstock