Abu Dhabi’s technology holding group, G42, has recently unveiled the Condor Galaxy-1 (CG-1), the world’s fastest supercomputer, boasting an incredible 54 million cores and a processing capacity of four exaflops. The CG-1 is strategically located in Santa Clara, California, and will be operated by the US-based AI firm, Cerebras, ensuring compliance with US laws.
With the increasing prominence of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, there is a growing demand for supercomputers to facilitate the training of sophisticated AI models. Companies like Microsoft have offered their services to construct and rent out such costly infrastructure to other businesses seeking AI solutions.
G42, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, is a technology holding group that envisions creating infrastructure for a futuristic world. Collaborating with both nations and corporations, G42 aims to solve humanity’s most pressing problems through innovative initiatives, including the development of the Condor Galaxy system of supercomputers.
What Sets the Condor Galaxy System Apart? While many technology companies have opted for massive clusters of graphic processing units (GPUs) for AI models, Cerebras Systems’ CEO, Andrew Feldman, and his team at Cerebras, working with G42, have taken a different approach. They are building an interconnected set of AI supercomputers that significantly reduce the time required for AI model training. In fact, the process of setting up generative AI models using their approach can be accomplished within minutes by a single individual, as opposed to the months and rare expertise typically needed when relying on thousands of tiny GPUs.
The combined processing power of the Condor Galaxy System will reach an astonishing 36 exaFLOPS, setting a new benchmark in the realm of computing.
The Core of the Condor Galaxy System – CG-1:
At the heart of the Condor Galaxy System lies the CG-1 supercomputer, which has recently been unveiled. Cerebras has meticulously assembled 64 of its flagship CS-2 AI processors to create the CG-1 supercomputer. AMD’s EPYC processor cores power the system, boasting an impressive 54 million AI-optimized compute cores, 388 terabits per second of fabric bandwidth, and 82 TB of memory storage.
Operating at 16-bit computation, CG-1 achieves a remarkable four exaFLOPS of computing power, outpacing the fastest supercomputer currently in existence by a factor of four. Its capabilities extend to training 600 billion parameter models and can be further expanded to support 100 trillion parameter models, far surpassing the parameters required for OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, which employs 1.7 trillion parameters.
Future Plans and Accessibility:
Cerebras and G42 have ambitious plans to introduce two additional installations of the supercomputer, CG-2 and CG-3, in the US in early 2024, while also offering CG-1 as a cloud service to customers.
What sets CG-1 apart is its native compatibility with 50,000 tokens and the ability to function without the need for complex distributed programming languages or special software libraries. This unique feature saves valuable time that would otherwise be spent on distributing workflows across multiple GPUs.
Location and Security Measures:
The supercomputer is housed at Colovore, a colocation facility in Santa Clara, California. It will be operated by Cerebras under the jurisdiction of US laws, ensuring that its computing power remains inaccessible to adversarial nations.
A Vision for the Future:
G42 and Cerebras are confident that the unmatched capabilities of the world’s fastest supercomputer will enable significant progress in addressing critical challenges in healthcare, energy, and climate change. The Condor Galaxy-1 stands as a testament to the potential of supercomputing technology in shaping a better future for humanity.
