In a groundbreaking collaboration, Dell Technologies, Intel, and the University of Cambridge have unveiled the fastest AI supercomputer in the United Kingdom – the Dawn Phase 1 supercomputer. This remarkable achievement represents a significant leap in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC), aiming to tackle some of the world’s most critical challenges.
Technical details and performance numbers for Dawn Phase 1 will be released in mid-November during the Supercomputing 23 (SC23) conference in Denver, Colorado.
Dawn’s emergence not only signifies the advancement of technology in the UK but also demonstrates a clear path towards future technology leadership and increased investment in the UK’s technology sector. This development showcases the nation’s commitment to cutting-edge research and innovation.
Dawn: The Fastest AI Supercomputer in the UK
Dawn is the product of an intricate co-design partnership involving Dell Technologies, Intel, the University of Cambridge, and additional investment from UK Research and Innovation. It now stands as the fastest AI supercomputer in the UK, ready to support some of the largest-ever workloads across academic research and industrial domains. The application areas of Dawn are extensive, ranging from healthcare and engineering to green fusion energy, climate modeling, and frontier science in cosmology and high-energy physics.
Collaborations like the one between the University of Cambridge, Dell Technologies, and Intel, alongside strong inward investment, are vital if we want computers to unlock the high-growth AI potential of the U.K. It is paramount that the government invest in the right technologies and infrastructure to ensure the U.K. leads in AI and exascale-class simulation capability.
It’s also important to embrace the full spectrum of the technology ecosystem, including GPU diversity, to ensure customers can tackle the growing demands of generative AI, industrial simulation modeling, and ground-breaking scientific research,” said Tariq Hussain, head of the U.K. public Sector, Dell Technologies.
A New Dawn for UK’s Scientific Research Communities
The scientific and AI computing capabilities in the UK have received a substantial boost with Dawn’s operational deployment at the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab. The Dell PowerEdge XE9640 servers form the foundation for this supercomputer, hosting the Intel Data Center GPU Max Series accelerator. This setup offers unparalleled versatility through the one API ecosystem, allowing for various applications in AI and HPC.
“I’m very excited to see the sorts of early science this machine can deliver and continue to strengthen the Open Zettascale Lab partnership between Dell Technologies, Intel, and the University of Cambridge and further broaden that to the U.K. scientific and AI community,”
– Adam Roe, EMEA HPC technical director at Intel.
The deployment of Dawn Phase 1 is not merely a technological milestone; it signifies the UK’s commitment to fostering innovation, scientific research, and technology leadership. With this supercomputer’s computational power, researchers and scientists across various fields can accelerate their efforts to address complex challenges that were previously beyond reach.
“Dawn Phase 1 represents a huge step forward in AI and simulation capability for the U.K., deployed and ready to use now. The system plays an important role within a larger context, where this co-design activity aims to deliver a Phase 2 supercomputer in 2024, which will boast 10 times the level of performance. If taken forward, Dawn Phase 2 would significantly boost the U.K. AI capability and continue this successful industry partnership,” – Dr. Paul Calleja, director of Research Computing Services at the University of Cambridge.
