Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) Launches Next Generation Artificial Intelligence High Performance Computing Platform

MUST appointed Automated Systems (Macau), an IT service provider, to design a high-performing GPU server cluster for the center to support the needs of different AI computing scenarios. These include smart healthcare (early diagnosis of cancers and analysis of cardiac imaging data), smart city (facial recognition, crowd management and traffic big data analysis), network security (cloud data security and network intrusion detection), and the research on space and planets, etc. The cluster was built primarily on the latest DGX series, an AI computing platform from NVIDIA, a leading provider for AI technology and FlashBlade, a high-performance all-flash storage system from Pure Storage, the IT pioneer that delivers storage as a service.

The new HPC center provides an enhanced environment for teaching and research, and these improvements are realized in three ways:

• High performance computing capabilities: The performance of scientific computing, such as deep learning and machine learning,  is significantly improved thanks to the powerful parallel processing capabilities of the GPU’s. The performance of the three DGX-series supercomputers are equipped with 32 NVIDIA V100 cards, reaching 4 PETAFLOPS (4x10¹⁵), or 4 quadrillion floating-point computing per second. Such improved performance enables faster simulation and analysis results.
• High-performance storage: The center is equipped with a high-capacity, high-speed SSD flash storage system to support big data analysis, making seamless AI research computing of different types possible. The current read and write speeds are up to 7GB / seconds or 160K NFS IOPS, and it can be upgraded to 150GB / seconds or 24M NFS IOPS in the future. The high performance of the storage system can significantly improve the speed of data analysis and the optimization of computing resources.
• High stability and reliability: All systems are connected to 100GB high availability network switches and are supported by a large-capacity backup power supply UPS and a complete dual air-conditioning system. In addition, the HPC center has 24/7 software support as well as field support from Automated Systems. The HPC center is built on a highly stable and reliable system to ensure peace and security for researchers to focus on their academic research and development.

"To support the development of a smart city, MUST has been dedicated to the research and advancement of a smart campus in recent years." says Professor Du Zhang Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology of MUST. “The newly opened AI HPC Center can enhance the AI research in MUST, including machine learning, big data technology, industrial intelligence and automation, and smart city, etc. The AI computing platform at the HPC center offers extraordinary reliability, performance and scalability. It is believed to be the largest AI computing center in Macau.

MUST strives to join hands with industry leaders to support the SAR government’s smart city initiative and provide a better environment for academic studies. The in-depth collaboration between MUST and IT industry leaders on the HPC center represents the level of importance of AI recognized by both academic and businesses. The HPC center provides researchers with the key equipment and resources they require for their research and development. MUST will continue to maintain a long-term working relationship with Automated Systems (Macau), NVIDIA, and Pure Storage in an effort to train innovative talents for "Smart Macau”. 
 

Automated Systems (Macau) Limited

With 45 years of experience in system integration, Automated Systems (Macau) Limited is a well-known System Integrator in Macau.  Its business scope ranges from providing computers  and peripherals to system integration, from networking and system installation to software/hardware maintenance, from security assessment to 24/7 surveillance, from data management to big data analysis, and from project management to consulting services.

NVIDIA 

The invention of GPU in 1999 not only boosted the growth of the gaming market and redefined computer graphics, it also revolutionized parallel computing. GPU in recent years has become the brain of computers, robots, and self-driving automobiles, and its development has propelled the next generation of computing technology and the evolution of artificial intelligence.
 

Pure Storage

Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) gives technologists their time back. Pure delivers a modern data experience that empowers organisations to run their operations as a true, automated, storage as-a-service model seamlessly across multiple clouds. One of the fastest-growing enterprise IT companies in history, Pure helps customers put data to use while reducing the complexity and expense of managing the infrastructure behind it. And with a certified customer satisfaction score in the top one percent of B2B companies, Pure's ever-expanding list of customers are among the happiest in the world.

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