In terms of AI developments, 2022 proved to be a banner year. AI production and usage increased and both deep learning and machine learning models steadily conquered increasingly complex problems. But AI evolution goes beyond impressive production and adoption levels to include breakthroughs in new computing methods, applications, and mega-scale supercomputers. Two of the leaders in this space are Microsoft Azure and NVIDIA and here are some of their most noteworthy achievements this year.

Massive cloud AI supercomputer for mega-sized AI models

The two computing giants are collaborating to provide one of the most powerful AI supercomputing platforms in the world. Powered by Microsoft Azure’s advanced supercomputing infrastructure combined with NVIDIA GPUs, networking, and the full stack of AI software, this cloud supercomputer will help enterprises train, deploy, and scale AI, including large, state-of-the-art models.

Azure is the first public cloud to incorporate NVIDIA’s advanced AI stack, adding tens of thousands of NVIDIA A100 and H100 GPUs, NVIDIA Quantum-2 400Gb/s InfiniBand networking, and the NVIDIA AI enterprise software suite to its platform.

This effort isn’t limited to spinning up better outputs in lean times—there’s also the need to advance knowledge and discoveries to benefit all of mankind’s endeavors and needs. All told, it’s an impressive AI system that performs at scales rarely imagined to be possible.

A quantum leap for AI-fueled scientific discoveries

AI can do far more than traditional data mining and advanced analytics. AI is dramatically changing scientific methods, handling complexities that a human mind cannot comprehend.

At Supercomputing 2022 (SC22), NVIDIA announced broad adoption of its next-generation H100 Tensor Core GPUs and Quantum-2 InfiniBand, including new offerings on Microsoft Azure cloud and over 50 new partner systems for accelerating scientific discovery.

H100 and Quantum-2 are part of NVIDIA’s high-performance computing (HPC) platform—a full technology stack with CPUs, GPUs, DPUs, systems, networking, and a broad range of AI and HPC software—that provides researchers the ability to efficiently accelerate their work on powerful systems, on-premises or in the cloud.

Microsoft Azure will be the first to offer NVIDIA Quantum-2 for HPC Workloads, providing a world-class supercomputing cloud infrastructure that allows researchers and scientists using Azure to achieve their life’s work.

Innovation is the lifeblood of all industries and this Microsoft Azure and NVIDIA breakthrough puts it at the fingertips of all users.

AI brings medical imagery diagnostics into sharper focus

A powerful collaboration between Microsoft Azure, NVIDIA, and the Nuance Precision Imaging Network puts AI-based medical image diagnostic tools directly into the hands of radiologists and other clinicians. This enables the capture of economies at scale, meaning patient care improves while costs drop.

A powerful collaboration between Microsoft Azure, NVIDIA, and the Nuance Precision Imaging Network puts AI-based medical image diagnostic tools directly into the hands of radiologists and other clinicians. This enables the capture of economies at scale, meaning patient care improves while costs drop. 

Powered by Microsoft Azure, the Nuance Precision Imaging Network provides access to an entire ecosystem of AI-powered tools and insights within clinical workflows to more than 12,000 healthcare facilities and the 80 percent of U.S. radiologists who use Nuance's PowerScribe radiology reporting and PowerShare image sharing solutions¹. 

Mass General Brigham will be among the first to accelerate end-to-end AI model development and deployment in clinical workflows on the Nuance Precision Imaging Network.

Wrapping up the roundup

• Azure collaborates with Hazy Research and NVIDIA to achieve unmatched MLPerf results. Azure-Hazy Research is the only submitter that reached below the 2-minute mark with BERT on 16 virtual machines.
• Azure scales 530B Parameter GPT-3 Model with NVIDIA NeMo Megatron. Combining NVIDIA NeMo Megatron with Azure AI infrastructure offers a powerful platform that anyone can spin up in minutes without having to incur the costs and burden of managing their own on-premises infrastructure.
• Azure and NVIDIA scored Top500 and Green500 ranking for AI purpose-built infrastructure
• HPCwire bestowed Microsoft Azure and NVIDIA top awards in Best Use of HPC in Financial Services Editors’ Choice, Best AI Product or Technology—Readers’ Choice, and Best Use of High-Performance Data Analytics & Artificial Intelligence.
• At Supercomputing 2022, Nidhi Chappell, General Manager, Microsoft Azure HPC + AI, and Ian Buck, VP/General Manager Hyperscale and HPC Computing, NVIDIA discussed game changers in AI and cloud infrastructure. And NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang shared the latest news, innovations, and technologies in NVIDIA’s SC22 Special Address.

Stay tuned for our 2023 advancements

Keep up to date with Microsoft and NVIDIA. Visit our HPCwire Solution Channel.

Sources: NVIDIA Teams With Microsoft to Build Massive Cloud AI Computer, NVIDIA news, November 16, 2022.