Nvidia has worked with the U.K.’s University of Bristol to build a new supercomputer using a new Nvidia chip that would compete with Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
Nvidia is the world’s top maker of graphics processing units (GPUs), which are in high demand because they can be used to speed up artificial intelligence work. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for example, was created with thousands of Nvidia GPUs.
This year, Nvidia has started shipping its own central processing unit (CPU) called Grace, which is based on technology from SoftBank Group-owned Arm Ltd.
Intel and AMD dominate the global CPU market.
Nvidia said it has worked with British researchers and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to build a computer called Isambard 3, which is based entirely on its Grace CPU chips and has none of Nvidia’s GPUs. The University of Bristol system will be used for climate science and drug discovery research, among other things.
“What’s exciting is the whole thing is operating on 270 kilowatts of power. That’s actually six times more performance and energy efficiency than the university’s previous system, Isambard 2,” Ian Buck, general manager and vice president of accelerated computing at Nvidia, said during a press briefing.
