NCSA Launches DeltaAI
Nov. 18, 2024 — The next generation of artificial intelligence-based research computing is here.
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications has launched DeltaAI, an advanced AI computing and data resource that will be a companion system to NCSA’s Delta. Funded by nearly $30 million in awards from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and accessible to researchers across the country through the NSF ACCESS program and the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot, DeltaAI will enable scientists and researchers to address the world’s most challenging problems by accelerating complex AI, machine learning and high-performance computing applications running terabytes of data by using state-of-the-art hardware, including the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip.
(Source: NCSA)
“The demand for computing and data resources for research with and into artificial intelligence has exploded,” said NCSA Director Bill Gropp. “With the addition of DeltaAI to our suite of AI and machine-learning resources, NCSA is perfectly positioned to usher in a new era of innovative and responsible AI computing.”
Built and operated at the world-class National Petascale Computing Facility – the former home of the now-decommissioned Blue Waters supercomputer – on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, DeltaAI will quadruple NCSA’s AI-focused computing capacity and greatly expand the capacity available within the NSF-funded advanced computing ecosystem.
“Illinois has been a leader in the field of artificial intelligence for decades, so it makes perfect sense to have one of the most state-of-the-art research computing systems in the world housed on our campus. Researchers and scientists across the globe – and here at Illinois – will be able to take advantage of this exciting technology in their pursuit of new knowledge,” said Robert J. Jones, Chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
University of Illinois researchers will be able to enjoy compute time on DeltaAI through 10% of allocations from the NSF award, and also Illinois Computes, which supplied 20 supplemental nodes integrated into the system.
“It’s a tremendous benefit to the entire campus to have dedicated AI computing resources available for use,” said Director of Illinois Computes Chuck Thompson. “Previously, Illinois researchers have had access to some of NCSA’s state-of-the-art resources, but this investment by Illinois Computes is a golden opportunity to go above and beyond what our research community has previously had available to them. We’re excited to see the impact these AI capabilities will have for Illinois researchers.”
Supported by $30 million in funding from campus, Illinois Computes offers computing and data storage resources, technical expertise and support services to researchers from all domains across the University of Illinois. An additional $20 million was provided by the University of Illinois System to bolster the resources available to the University of Illinois Chicago, the University of Illinois Springfield, the Discovery Partners Institute and other system partners.
“As our state’s flagship land-grant university, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has pioneered learning and innovation for more than 150 years. This powerful new technology is yet another example of the university’s global leadership. It is a valuable tool that will accelerate the growth of groundbreaking research across disciplines for years to come,” said John Coleman, Provost of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
This new system wasn’t built with just AI research in mind, though. DeltaAI is scaleable and suitable for GPU-accelerated HPC workloads as well, making it a popular choice for researchers.
“DeltaAI is, of course, AI – it’s right there in the name – but it’s also a good HPC platform,” Gropp said. “We expect there to be significant HPC use with this system.”
DeltaAI will utilize the newest web-based interfaces that will make it more accessible to the growing community of domains employing AI methods in their research. Aligning with the greater mission at NCSA and the larger NSF effort to democratize high-performance computing, DeltaAI will follow best practices for accessibility, including utilizing user-friendly interfaces and working with developers to create an environment that works for individuals with disabilities.
In response to the enormous interest in Delta through NAIRR, DeltaAI will substantially increase the amount of NSF-supported time available to those projects.
“AI is in high demand and we want to ensure DeltaAI is a resource available to all, whether they’re high-frequency users or new faces to the research computing community,” Gropp said. “We’re excited to work with researchers from all backgrounds and any domain in exploring the greatest potential of DeltaAI.”
About DeltaAI
Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (OAC 2320345), DeltaAI has been designed from the ground up to maximize the output of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) research. Tripling NCSA’s AI-focused computing capacity and greatly expanding the capacity available within the NSF-funded advanced computing ecosystem within ACCESS, DeltaAI will enable scientists and researchers to address the world’s most challenging problems by accelerating complex AI/ML and high-performance computing applications running terabytes of data. Additional funding for DeltaAI comes from the State of Illinois.
Source: Andrew Helregel, NCSA
