Neocortex and Bridges-2: A High Performance AI+HPC Ecosystem for Science, Discovery, and Societal Good
Neocortex and Bridges-2: A High Performance AI+HPC Ecosystem for Science, Discovery, and Societal Good
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DOI：
10.1007/978-3-030-68035-0_15
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发表时间：
2020
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Paola A. Buitrago;Nicholas A. Nystrom
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文献类型：
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作者：
Paola A. Buitrago;Nicholas A. Nystrom
人工智能（AI）正在通过分析海量数据集和加速模拟来改变研究，加速因子高达10亿。这样的加速使通过CPU处理和设计的改进以及其他类型的算法进步而实现的加速变得黯然失色。它为发现的新时代奠定了基础，在这个新时代中，以前难以克服的挑战将变得可以克服，其应用领域包括发现癌症和罕见疾病的原因，开发有效，负担得起的药物，提高粮食可持续性，开发对环境因素的详细了解以支持保护生物多样性，以及开发替代能源作为扭转气候变化的一步。为了取得成功，研究界需要一个高性能的计算生态系统，无缝、高效地将可扩展的人工智能、通用计算和大规模数据管理结合在一起。匹兹堡超级计算中心（PSC）的作者推出了第二代计算生态系统，以实现AI支持的研究，将精心设计的系统和突破性技术结合在一起，为研究社区提供了一个独特的平台。它由两个主要系统组成：Neocortex和Bridges 2。Neocortex体现了一种革命性的处理器架构，可以大大缩短深度学习训练所需的时间，促进人工深度学习与科学工作流的更大整合，并加速图形分析。Bridges-2集成了额外的可扩展AI、高性能计算（HPC）和高性能并行文件系统，用于模拟、数据预处理和后处理、可视化和大数据即服务。Neocortex和Bridges-2集成在一起，形成了一个紧密耦合且高度灵活的生态系统，用于人工智能和数据驱动的研究。
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming research through analysis of massive datasets and accelerating simulations by factors of up to a billion. Such acceleration eclipses the speedups that were made possible though improvements in CPU process and design and other kinds of algorithmic advances. It sets the stage for a new era of discovery in which previously intractable challenges will become surmountable, with applications in fields such as discovering the causes of cancer and rare diseases, developing effective, affordable drugs, improving food sustainability, developing detailed understanding of environmental factors to support protection of biodiversity, and developing alternative energy sources as a step toward reversing climate change. To succeed, the research community requires a high-performance computational ecosystem that seamlessly and efficiently brings together scalable AI, general-purpose computing, and large-scale data management. The authors, at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), launched a second-generation computational ecosystem to enable AI-enabled research, bringing together carefully designed systems and groundbreaking technologies to provide at no cost a uniquely capable platform to the research community. It consists of two major systems: Neocortex and Bridges-2. Neocortex embodies a revolutionary processor architecture to vastly shorten the time required for deep learning training, foster greater integration of artificial deep learning with scientific workflows, and accelerate graph analytics. Bridges-2 integrates additional scalable AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and high-performance parallel file systems for simulation, data pre- and post-processing, visualization, and Big Data as a Service. Neocortex and Bridges-2 are integrated to form a tightly coupled and highly flexible ecosystem for AI- and data-driven research.