25.06.2021

State-of-the-art GPU cluster put into operation at TU Ilmenau

The TU Ilmenau is further expanding its technical infrastructure to support research and transfer activities in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science. For this purpose, a so-called GPU cluster, funded by the Thüringer Aufbaubank, was recently put into operation in the university's data center. "The installation of this state-of-the-art GPU computing cluster is another step towards Ilmenau becoming a premium AI location," explains Prof. Sattler, President and Head of the group of Databases and Information Systems at the departmet of Computer Science and Automation at TU Ilmenau.

The parallel processing of huge amounts of data is the basis for the complex learning processes of machine learning and artificial intelligence. If several GPUs, i.e. powerful graphics processing units, which are particularly suitable for high-performance computing due to their architecture, are connected to form a cluster, their performance is multiplied even further. Prof. Sattler is convinced: "With this kind of Deep Learning technology, TU Ilmenau not only provides the Thuringian economy with access to the most powerful data processing, but the university can also compete internationally in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

Nahaufnahme des NVIDIA A100 Tensor-Core TZLR/Johann Lembach
The installation of the state-of-the-art GPU computing cluster is a further step towards Ilmenau becoming a premium AI location.

GPUs from graphics giant NVIDIA are installed in the recently commissioned computing cluster. In addition to 320 CPU cores, the seven GPU servers contain a total of 36 NVIDIA A100 tensor-core GPUs with a total of 1.44 TB of RAM. Connected via a low-latency 200Gbit/s network, these GPUs allow efficient processing of even the largest data volumes. In addition to future research projects at TU Ilmenau, this will also benefit highly ambitious current projects in the future field of artificial intelligence, such as the "Engineering for Smart Manufacturing (E4SM)" project funded by the Carl Zeiss Foundation or the inter-university "ThurAI" project launched at the beginning of April and funded by the Free State of Thuringia.

However, TU Ilmenau does not only want to emphasise artificial intelligence and data science more strongly in research. The new disciplines are also increasingly finding their way into the university's teaching. Prof. Sattler: "Access to a modern GPU cluster is at the same time an enormous gain, especially for the computer science courses, but also for all other fields of study, as students can thus be best prepared for working in a data-driven future."

 

Contact

Prof. Kai-Uwe Sattler

President
+49 3677 69-5001
praesident@tu-ilmenau.de

FKZ 2019 FGI 0021