The Isambard-AI supercomputer at the University of Bristol is now operational thanks to £225m in government funding. The machine will support AI research conducted by organizations like the UK’s AI Safety Institute. This funding is part of a larger £300m package dedicated to creating a national Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (AIRR) for the country. Isambard-AI phase one is powered by a Cray EX2500 supercomputer with 168 Nvidia GH200 GraceHopper chips. It will collaborate with the Dawn supercomputer cluster in Cambridge, designed by Intel, Dell Technologies, and the University of Cambridge. Isambard-AI boasts highly efficient hardware, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) Slingshot 11 interconnect and Nvidia’s CPU-GPU systems. Its performance ranks it at position 129 on the Top500 list of high-performance computing (HPC) systems globally. Once the remaining GPUs arrive at the University’s National Composites Centre (NCC), the system’s performance will increase significantly. The launch of Isambard-AI represents a significant milestone for UK science, innovation, and technology, according to Minister for AI, Jonathan Berry. He highlights the groundbreaking potential of this supercomputer, including its impact on AI safety, healthcare, and climate research. Although Isambard-AI is a major step forward for UK supercomputing, Intel announced the Aurora supercomputer at ISC High Performance 2024, which broke the exascale barrier at 1.012 exaflops, making it the world’s fastest AI system for open science. Isambard-AI is also ranked second on the Green500, right behind Jedi, the first module of the exascale supercomputer Jupiter. Jedi’s unique hot water-cooling system, called Direct Liquid Cooling, offers significant energy savings compared to air cooling and enables the reuse of generated heat downstream.
UK AI supercomputer brought to life in Bristol
