Developing high-performance computing infrastructure: Promoting scientific research, supporting industrial production

SGGP July 13, 2023 11:23

Scientists at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT) recommend that the city be determined and take the lead in developing high-performance computing infrastructure. The investment will promote cooperation programs, increasing the competitiveness of HCMC with other cities in the region and the world.

An HPC Cloud model in building high performance computing infrastructure

Cannot solve big problems

“In recent years, the application group related to computational science and engineering has been strongly developed with the formation of centers and laboratories on computational science and engineering or artificial intelligence (AI)... However, these groups often solve problems on a small scale, sometimes running large-sized problems on powerful computer systems abroad because the country does not have a large enough computer system,” said Associate Professor, Dr. Thoai Nam, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. According to Associate Professor, Dr. Thoai Nam, not only science, many industrial applications are developing faster and more complexly, and executing problems on conventional computers is not feasible, so we must use high-performance computing systems (HPC) with strong numerical calculation capabilities and strong Big Data processing capabilities.

With the topic "Research and proposal of high-performance computing infrastructure design for Ho Chi Minh City", Associate Professor, Dr. Thoai Nam, project leader, and a group of scientists from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, stated that large corporations and enterprises such as Vingroup, VNPT, Viettel ..., although having their own computing infrastructure, are not located in Ho Chi Minh City and cannot share with other enterprises. Currently, the whole city has less than 10 systems with computing power of less than 100 TFlops for HPC (64bit) and less than 1 PFlops for AI (16bit). Particularly in the institute - school sector, although a number of high-performance computing systems have been invested, they are currently weak, even many powerful computer systems are discrete, not highly efficient and cannot solve large problems. “Investing in high-performance computing infrastructure to serve the AI ecosystem, including AI research and application for agencies, units, and training facilities; implementing the Ho Chi Minh City AI program to promote scientific research, support industrial production, develop science and technology applications, etc. is a necessary need today,” Associate Professor, Dr. Thoai Nam shared.

Find the optimal solution

“In Southeast Asia, Vietnam is behind Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia in the field of high-performance computing. Ho Chi Minh City is the leader, leading the country in the application of science and technology , so it is extremely necessary for the city to build a high-performance computing system,” said a representative of the high-performance computing infrastructure research group serving Ho Chi Minh City. Based on the experience of developing computing infrastructure in a number of countries as well as the development and cooperation trends in the world, the group of scientists suggested that the development of the city's high-performance computing infrastructure should be divided into 3 phases. Phase 1, building and developing the city's linked and shared high-performance computing infrastructure. This infrastructure cannot be successful without a key high-performance computing center that plays a central role in connecting and meeting users' resource exploitation needs. Phase 2, building and developing the national high-performance computing infrastructure. Phase 3, participate in regional and international high-performance computing infrastructure.

According to Mr. Vu Anh Tuan, General Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Informatics Association, with the reality in Ho Chi Minh City and especially with the Program "Research and development of AI applications in Ho Chi Minh City in the period of 2020-2030" (aiming to build and develop an ecosystem for research, development and application of AI; making AI a key technology for digital transformation; contributing to building Ho Chi Minh City into a smart city, a creative city...), investing in high-performance computer systems will help the AI program achieve better results. Sharing the same view, Associate Professor, Dr. Thoai Nam affirmed: "From the lessons of developed countries, we need to develop a high-performance computing infrastructure that connects and shares with end users. This helps the city mobilize resources from many units, including businesses, to participate in investing to solve their own problems, and at the same time share and use resources from other units when there are big problems".

With the topic "Research and proposal for high-performance computing infrastructure design to serve Ho Chi Minh City", the research team noted that investing in HPC systems is quite expensive, requiring regular upgrades and replacements to maintain competitiveness as well as keep up with technological advances. Therefore, the city needs to consider investing in a high-performance computing center with the ability to connect and share to improve scientific and technical capacity, solve big problems, serve socio-economic development and major programs such as AI research and development, smart cities, digital transformation. In particular, the solution of using high-performance cloud computing services (HPC Cloud) with a unit capable of providing from hardware to software is an option to consider.

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