A common misconception is that high-powered computing (HPC) and exascale supercomputing are too powerful for traditional businesses — that they’re only designed for mammoth university and government programs that seek to answer humanity’s biggest questions, like how the galaxies are formed or finding solutions for global crises like climate change and hunger.
But the reality is that HPC and exascale also have business-critical use cases across every industry, transforming operations and solving everyday business challenges.
And with the release of the world’s most powerful — and first — public exascale supercomputer, the HPE Cray Frontier, the possibilities become truly infinite.
How HPC and exascale supercomputing accelerate business transformation
Innovations in blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality, and other technologies are opening doors to new opportunities and better, faster ways of doing business. Grabbing hold of these opportunities and remaining agile in a constantly evolving world means that every industry must embrace digital transformation.
But without centralized data and insights, it can be hard to be agile and anticipate what’s next — especially for large corporations. That’s where HPC and exascale supercomputing can help. For example, at HPE, we employed HPC to centralize and consolidate multiple ERPs as well as our analytics platforms — something we couldn’t do with traditional servers. This effort transformed our business and positioned us to offer more than 80 products as a service.
And there are plenty of other use cases. Carestream Health uses HPC with AI-as-a-Service and other offerings from HPE to improve medical imaging accuracy, automate processes, and reduce cycle times. NCAR uses HPC to forecast summer rainfall and reservoir inflows for smarter water management. Oil and gas companies use HPC to analyze seismic data and determine new well locations. Healthcare organizations use HPC to accelerate vaccine development. Retailers use HPC to reduce inventory shrinkage. The list goes on.
HPE Cray Frontier: The world’s fastest supercomputer
Developed for the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), HPE Cray Frontier is the world’s fastest supercomputer. Problems that once took months to solve can now be worked out in a matter of days, surfacing answers to questions humans never thought to ask.
With performance at 1.1 exaflops, the HPE Cray Frontier is faster than the world’s seven most powerful supercomputers combined. Powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors and AMD Instinct MI250x accelerators, Frontier calculates 10x quicker than the world’s top supercomputers, solving problems that are 8x as complex.
It’s also worth noting that the Frontier is a huge IT sustainability win for customers thanks to efficient AMD processing technology and sophisticated liquid-cooling capabilities. Frontier is the most power-efficient supercomputing architecture in the world, topping the Green500 list.
“This technology is going to change the world,” remarks Dr. Thomas Zacharia, ORNL Director, “from medicine to biology to materials to deep space to climate change to energy transitions.” Frontier can predict mutations to combat future pandemics, develop new medical treatments faster, and ultimately save lives.
GE is also using Frontier in their drive to design more powerful, sustainable wind turbines. Frontier allows them to look at physics and flow across an entire farm of wind turbines to study interdependencies and impacts at scale, so they can manufacture more efficient, reliable, and cost-effective turbines.
Discover if HPC supercomputing is right for your business
Are you ready to explore the superpowers of HPC and exascale supercomputing for your business? Together, GDT and HPE can lead you through a free, one-day transformation workshop where we examine your business challenges and priorities and build a digital roadmap. As a leader in space, we apply our expertise and leadership and all the lessons we’ve learned to customize a realistic roadmap that accelerates your business.
To get started with your roadmap, contact the experts at GDT.
