“I hope you realize this is not a concert.”said Nvidia President Jensen Huang at a packed SAP center in San Jose. CEO Jensen Huang delivered an electrifying keynote speech at NVIDIA's GPU technology Conference (GTC) 2024, in which he made groundbreaking announcements that promise to redefine the technology. With more than 11,000 attendees and a global audience, the event excited and speculated about the future of accelerated computing and ai.
A look at the crowd at GTC 2024
You've arrived at a developer conference. There will be a lot of science describing algorithms, computer architecture and mathematics. I feel a very heavy weight in the room; Suddenly you are in the wrong place.
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA
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Let's check out the highlights from the NVIDIA GTC 2024 Keynote!
Accelerated computing
Huang highlighted the accelerated computing paradigm as essential to sustaining the growth of computing demands across industries. With general-purpose computing reaching its limits, NVIDIA's accelerated computing architecture promises substantial performance improvements, fueling advances in fields from climate science to healthcare. The shift towards accelerated computing is not only technological but marks a new industrial revolution, requiring the modernization of global data center infrastructure.
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-generative-ai-creating-a-new-category-of-software”>Generative ai: creating a new software category
The keynote highlighted generative ai, emphasizing its emergence as a powerful technology capable of creating software that never existed before. This new category of ai, exemplified by advances such as ChatGPT and various generative models, displays the ability to generate novel content, including text, images, and even software code, heralding a new era of ai-powered creativity and productivity.
Introduction to Blackwell Architecture
At the center of Huang's speech was the introduction of Blackwell architecture, a revolutionary advance named after David Harold Blackwell, the esteemed mathematician. It significantly surpasses the capabilities of his predecessor, Hopper, challenging traditional computing paradigms.
Technical innovations
- Transistor and process innovation: Blackwell is designed with 208 billion transistors on two chips, using a sophisticated 4NP TSMC process. This design enables a remarkable 10 TB/s interface, overcoming the limitations of conventional semiconductors.
- Efficiency and power: The architecture introduces FP4 and FP6 computing capabilities, improving the efficiency of model training with a balance of power and accuracy. A second-generation transformative engine drives substantial improvements in compute, bandwidth, and model size, meeting ai development needs.
How is Blackwell going to help? Let's explore that in the next section:
Bandwidth and reliability
- Advanced connectivity: Integration with PCIe Gen6 and HBM3e memory technology significantly increases bandwidth. Fifth-generation NVLink doubles bandwidth to 1.8 TB/s, supported by RAS Engine to improve the reliability of ai deployment.
- Confidential computing: Blackwell also features capabilities for confidential computing, ensuring secure data processing within trusted execution environments on GPUs.
Source: TechRepublic
Blackwell's technological advances
- Performance milestonesAchieving 2.5x performance at FP8 for training and 5x performance at FP4 for inference, the Blackwell chip, together with the NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell superchip, sets new standards for GPU performance and GPU efficiency. memory architecture.
- Networking platforms: Integration with Quantum-X800 InfiniBand and Spectrum-X800 Ethernet platforms enables network speeds of up to 800 Gb/s, while the NVLink Switch chip helps build the advanced NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 system for ai training and inference.
- Supercomputing capabilities: The DGX SuperPOD, powered by NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell superchips, is a milestone in ai supercomputing. Designed for trillion-parameter models, it provides 11.5 exaflops of computing power with FP4 precision, with a liquid-cooled architecture for high-efficiency, scalable ai processing.
Industry adoption and support
- Corporate support: Prominent figures such as Sundar Pichai (Alphabet and Google), Elon Musk (Tesla and xAI), and other industry leaders have publicly endorsed Blackwell, signaling a widespread industry shift toward NVIDIA's vision.
- Global adoption: Backed by leading cloud services and innovative ai companies, Blackwell's comprehensive adoption shows its potential to revolutionize several industries.
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-generative-ai-with-nim”>Generative ai with NIM
Huang's vision extended beyond hardware to how we create and deploy software. He introduced NVIDIA NIM (NVIDIA Inference Microservices), a revolutionary in packaging and delivering ai-powered software. This innovation connects developers to millions of GPUs around the world, enabling the implementation of custom ai in various applications.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-merging-ai-with-the-real-world-omniverse-cloud-apis”>Merging ai with the real world: Omniverse Cloud API
- Omniverse Cloud Integration: Highlighting the fusion of ai with physical reality, Omniverse Cloud APIs offer advanced simulation capabilities essential for the development of robotics and ai's understanding of our world.
- A paradigm shift: Generative ai is redefining software development processes. Instead of traditional coding, companies will leverage ai models, assign them tasks, and guide them with examples and feedback. NVIDIA NIMs, built on NVIDIA computing libraries and generative ai models, represent this new approach.
- Simplifying integration: NVIDIA microservices are designed to easily integrate into existing systems and support industry-standard APIs. They are optimized for NVIDIA's CUDA platform, continually updated for new generations of GPUs, and regularly scanned for security to ensure robust and secure ai solutions.
Project Groot: the future of humanoid robotics
Among the slew of announcements, Project Groot emerged as a model of NVIDIA's ambition in humanoid robotics. Groot, whose name is fun but with a nod to the popular “Guardians of the Galaxy” character, represents NVIDIA's foray into basic general-purpose models for humanoid robots. Huang imagined a world where robotics and artificial intelligence converge to create autonomous systems capable of perfectly interacting with their environment. This project aims to bridge the gap between the digital prowess of ai and its physical manifestations, learning from human examples and adapting to the laws of physics through rigorous training in virtual environments such as Omniverse.
The Foundation: Jetson Thor and Isaac Lab
The Jetson Thor computer and the Isaac Laboratory form the core of Project Groot's development infrastructure. Jetson Thor, equipped for Transformer engines, will provide unmatched processing power for humanoid robots, enhancing their ability to navigate and interact with the world with unprecedented precision.
The future of robotics
Huang predicts a future in which all moving objects will incorporate robotics, with the automotive sector playing an important role. Highlighting NVIDIA's influence, Huang shared that BYD, the leading electric vehicle manufacturer, has chosen NVIDIA's next-generation computers for its autonomous vehicles.
Advances in perception and manipulation
- Isaac Perceptor SDK: Introduced to improve environmental perception of robots, this toolkit offers advanced visual odometry, 3D reconstruction, and depth sensing capabilities.
- Isaac Manipulator: This new library advances robotic arm technology with sophisticated perception, trajectory planning and control mechanisms, indicating significant progress in robotic adaptability.
The GR00T project, distinct from Groot, represents NVIDIA's commitment to advancing robotics and embedded ai. Along with the announcement of Project GR00T, NVIDIA introduced the Jetson Thor computer designed for humanoid robots and substantial improvements to the NVIDIA Isaac robotics platform, laying the foundation for more sophisticated robotic systems.
GTC March 2024 Keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang
Final note
NVIDIA's GTC 2024 keynote, led by Jensen Huang, was more than a presentation; It was a statement from the future. With the Blackwell architecture revealed and Project Groot on the horizon, NVIDIA is shaping a technological era destined to transform our digital and physical realms. At this peak, NVIDIA innovations could usher in the next industrial revolution, driving progress through accelerated computing and generative ai.
Stay tuned to Analytics Vidhya blogs to know more about what's happening in the world of GenAI!
