The university expects that when it’s operational it’ll be one of the top performing academic supercomputers on the planet.
Texas A&M is getting a new supercomputer with so much power that it’ll triple the university’s supercomputing capacity overnight when it goes online.
It’s being installed, of course, to service the AI gods and goddesses. The institution says that when it’s up and running it’s expected to be one of the highest-performance AI supercomputers at any North American university.
“This investment will triple our computing capacity, which will support the A&M System’s growing research initiatives, particularly in areas such as machine learning, generative AI applications, graphics rendering and scientific simulations,” said Chancellor John Sharp in a statement.
With generative AI quickly taking over the world, Texas A&M want’s to be an attractive destination for students looking to develop careers as AI technicians. The university says that when it’s up and running it’ll be an innovation hub that’ll create “world-class AI skills.” In fact, the institution’s PR pundits are already claiming that it’s going to make the university a world-class destination for both students and faculty who want to develop and hone their AI skills on state-of-the-art equipment.
The new supercomputer is going to be used to conduct a lot of cutting-edge research, which should surprise no one, since research and development is a big thing at Texas A&M. In 2021, for example, the institution spent $1.14 billion on R&D, making it 16th among US universities for R&D spending that year.
Speaking of spending, the university is spending a lot on this project. The cost of this new supercomputer is a whopping $45 million. World Wide Technologies Inc. — an Nvidia channel partner — will evidently be building the system that will utilize Nvidia DGX SuperPOD with DGX H200 systems. World Wide Technologies, BTW, is the 19th largest private company and the largest black-owned company, in the US.
“World Wide Technology is proud to work with Nvidia to deliver on Texas A&M University’s vision for investing in and leading the way in creating value with generative AI for all of its stakeholders,” said Shawn Rodriguez, vice president of State and Local Government and Education at World Wide Technologies.
By the time it’s built, the DGX SuperPOD will feature a total of 760 NVIDIA Hopper GPUs scaled with NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking.
The university itself will be making necessary upgrades as well as covering equipment and installation costs at the West Campus Data Center on the university’s campus.
“Texas A&M’s new DGX SuperPOD will help transform the university into a national AI hub, providing students and faculty with access to the NVIDIA accelerated computing platform to boost AI education and research,” said Jack Wells, director of higher education and research computing at NVIDIA.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
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