Check out weekly insights into the world of HPC and AI with this HPC Top 5 Stories.

1. HPC TOP 5 STORIES
Weekly Insights into the World of
High Performance Computing

2. HPC AND AI HAVE PAVED THE WAY FOR
GROUNDBREAKING DISCOVERIES IN SCIENCE,
MEDICINE, AND OTHER FIELDS…

3. PROVING THAT AI IS THE FUTURE OF
SUPERCOMPUTING…

4. HERE ARE THE “TOP FIVE’ STORIES
HIGHLIGHTING WHAT’S HOT IN HPC AND AI
TOP 5

5. TOP 5
1. Introducing Faster GPUs for Google Compute Engine
2. GPUs Accelerate Population Distribution Mapping Around the Globe
3. Numba: High-Performance Python with CUDA Acceleration
4. Object Detection for Visual Search in Bing
5. The Astonishing Engineering Behind America’s Latest, Greatest Supercomputer

6. INTRODUCING FASTER GPUS FOR
GOOGLE COMPUTE ENGINE
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GOOGLE BLOG
Today, we're happy to make some massively parallel
announcements for Cloud GPUs. First, Google Cloud
Platform (GCP) gets another performance boost with the
public launch of NVIDIA P100 GPUs in beta. Second,
NVIDIA K80 GPUs are now generally available on Google
Compute Engine. Third, we're happy to announce the
introduction of sustained use discounts on both the K80
and P100 GPUs.
Cloud GPUs can accelerate your workloads including
machine learning training and inference, geophysical
data processing, simulation, seismic analysis, molecular
modeling, genomics and many more high performance
compute use cases.

7. GPUS ACCELERATE POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
MAPPING AROUND THE GLOBE
2
ARTICLE
Mapping settlements involves advanced algorithms capable of
extracting, representing, modeling and interpreting satellite
image features. A decade ago, automated feature extraction
algorithms on CPU-based architectures helped speed the
identification of settlements. But identifying quick shifts in
population—such as migration or changes after a natural
disaster—required more computing power.
Using GPUs, AI technology and ORNL’s LandScan high-
definition global population data, the ORNL team can now
quickly process high-resolution satellite imagery to map
human settlements and changing urban dynamics. The
parallel-processing capability of NVIDIA Tesla GPUs allowed
researchers to develop and use the computationally
expensive feature descriptor algorithms to process imagery at
dramatic speed-ups of up to 200x.

8. NUMBA: HIGH-PERFORMANCE PYTHON WITH CUDA
ACCELERATION
3
BLOG
With Numba, it is now possible to write standard
Python functions and run them on a CUDA-capable
GPU. Numba is designed for array-oriented
computing tasks, much like the widely used NumPy
library. The data parallelism in array-oriented
computing tasks is a natural fit for accelerators like
GPUs. Numba understands NumPy array types, and
uses them to generate efficient compiled code for
execution on GPUs or multicore CPUs. The
programming effort required can be as simple as
adding a function decorator to instruct Numba to
compile for the GPU. For example, the @vectorize
decorator in the following code generates a
compiled, vectorized version of the scalar function
Add at run time so that it can be used to process
arrays of data in parallel on the GPU.

9. OBJECT DETECTION FOR VISUAL SEARCH IN BING
Luckily for us our partners at Azure were just testing
new Azure NVIDIA GPU instances. We measured that
the new Azure instances running NVIDIA cards
accelerated the inference on detection network by 3x!
Additionally, analyzing traffic patterns, we
determined that a caching layer could help things
even further. Our Microsoft Research friends had just
the right tool for the job: a fast, scalable key-value
store called ObjectStore. With the cache to store the
results of object detection in place we were not only
able to further decrease the latency but also save 75%
of GPU cost.
4
BLOG

10. THE ASTONISHING ENGINEERING BEHIND AMERICA’S
LATEST, GREATEST SUPERCOMPUTER
5
If you want to do big, serious science, you’ll need a serious
machine. You know, like a giant water-cooled computer
that’s 200,000 times more powerful than a top-of-the-line
laptop and that sucks up enough energy to power 12,000
homes.
You’ll need Summit, a supercomputer nearing completion
at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. When
it opens for business next year, it'll be the United States’
most powerful supercomputer and perhaps the most
powerful in the world. Because as science gets bigger, so
too must its machines, requiring ever more awesome
engineering, both for the computer itself and the building
that has to house it without melting.
ARTICLE

11. HOW CAN HPC IMPACT YOUR BUSINESS?
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