NVIDIA and IBM Partnership
Putting NVIDIA Tesla GPUs (graphics processing unit) into supercomputers to enable faster data crunching, statistical analysis and mathematics is nothing new. What is new is the NVIDIA and IBM partnership that will bring this GPU boosted supercomputing to an enterprise level data center near you.
Because IBM opened up its Power8 architecture and started the OpenPower Consortium of which NVIDIA is a member, we believe IBM will combine the Tesla GPU with its new 12 core Power8 CPU. The Power8 is expected to be three times faster than the Power7 CPU that currently powers the Jeopardy winning IBM Watson.
What is the benefit of the combination?
– GPUs shine at parallel computing (carrying out multiple operations simultaneously).
– CPUs shine at serial computing (carrying out one operation at a time).
Combine the two and you have Supercomputing level power at Enterprise level availability. The combo of the NVIDIA Tesla GPU and IBM Power8 chip will be the one to beat when it comes to databases, data mining, oil exploration, financial modeling and more.