Fujitsu to Build 37 Petaflop AI Supercomputer for AIST in Japan

Nikkei in Japan reports that Fujitsu is building a 37 Petaflop supercomputer for the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) center for AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure (ABCI).

As the core of ABCI, the high-performance computational system will consist of 1,088 PRIMERGY CX2570 M4 servers, mounted in Fujitsu’s PRIMERGY CX400 M4 multi-node servers. Each server will feature the latest components, including two Intel Xeon Gold processor CPUs (a total of 2,176 CPUs) and four NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPU computing cards (a total of 4,352 GPUs), as well as Intel SSD DC P4600 series based on an NVMe standard, as local storage.

The news comes on the heels of a set of Human-Centric AI announcements from Fujitsu, including a quantum-inspired AI cloud service and set of interactive robotics demonstrations at the Oracle Open World conference.

“AI is a core technology which enables many complex processes to be conducted independently of human judgment. Now, deep learning is often featured in the media. But it is not the whole story of AI, just an important piece of the puzzle. Our human cognition is continuously generated from complex interactions between our sensory organs, nervous system, brain and external environments. To achieve an AI, we have to replicate and bring together a range of cognitive capabilities: perceiving, reasoning, making choices, learning, communicating, and moving and manipulating. Fujitsu is developing key technologies under a comprehensive framework (see diagram). We call it Human-Centric AI, Zinrai. Fujitsu is incorporating component technology such as machine learning, deep learning and visual recognition, into its digital solutions and services.”

Back in May, Fujitsu previewed quantum-inspired technology in the field of artificial intelligence, focusing on the areas of combinatorial optimization and machine learning. The companies will work together in both the Japanese and global markets to develop applications which address industry problems using AI developed for use with quantum computers. This collaboration will enable software developed by 1QBit for quantum computers to run on a “digital annealer,” jointly developed by Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. and the University of Toronto. A digital annealer is a computing architecture that can rapidly solve combinatorial optimization problems using existing semiconductor technology.

Sign up for our insideHPC Newsletter