Nvidia closes in on AMD, Intel’s turf in supercomputers

According to Nvidia Corp., it collaborated with the University of Bristol in the UK to build a supercomputer that uses an Nvidia chip.

Nvidia can now compete with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel Corp. thanks to its new supercomputer.

The most well-known manufacturer of graphics processing units (GPUs), which can be used to speed up artificial intelligence work, is Nvidia. For instance, thousands of Nvidia GPUs were used to create OpenAI's ChatGPT.

But the market for what is known as a central processing unit (CPU), which AMD and Intel have long dominated, is where Nvidia's GPU chips are typically paired. Nvidia will start shipping its own CPU chip called Grace in 2023. This chip is based on Arm Ltd. technology and is owned by SoftBank Group.

Nvidia announced on Monday that it had collaborated with British researchers and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. to create the Isambard 3 computer, which is entirely based on Grace CPU chips and lacks any of Nvidia's GPUs. The University of Bristol system will be used, among other things, for research on drug discovery and climate science.

"The fact that the entire system only uses 270 kilowatts of power is fascinating. This system performs and uses energy six times more efficiently than the university's previous system, Isambard 2 "During a press briefing, Nvidia's general manager and vice president of accelerated computing, Ian Buck, said.