NTT Comms, Preferred Networks Launch Supercomputer in Japan

Preferred Networks, Inc. (PFN), a provider of IoT-centric deep learning systems, NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the ICT solutions and international communications business within the NTT Group, and NTT Com subsidiary NTT PC Communications Incorporated (NTTPC) have launched a private supercomputer designed to facilitate research and development of deep learning, including autonomous driving and cancer diagnosis.

The new supercomputer is one of the most powerful to be developed by the private sector in Japan and is equipped with NTT Com and NTTPC's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) platform, and contains 1,024 of NVIDIA®'s Tesla® multi-node P100 GPUs. Theoretically, the processing speed of the new supercomputer can reach 4.7 PetaFLOPS—a massive 4,700 trillion floating point operations per second—the fastest levels of any computing environment in Japan.

PFN's deep learning research demands an ultra high-speed, high capacity, state-of-the-art computing environment. Existing GPU platforms require massive electricity supplies, generate excessive heat and offer inadequate network speed.

To address these issues, PFN adopted the NTT Com Group's proven GPU platform, which boasts significantly advanced technology. They additionally leveraged the latest data center design, building a large-scale multi-node platform using ChainerMN, PFN's technology that significantly accelerates the speed of deep learning by parallelizing calculations over multiple nodes.

NTT Com group has developed and released a multi-node GPU platform on Enterprise Cloud, Nexcenter™, a world-leading data center service, which incorporates the group's extensive know-how in GPU performance maximization.

Following the supercomputer launch, PFN plans to increase the processing speed of its open source deep learning framework Chainer. They will further accelerate their research and development in the field of transportation systems, manufacturing, bio and healthcare industry which require a huge amount of computing resources. PFN will additionally consider the deployment of NVIDIA® Tesla® V100 GPUs, which are based on next-generation Volta GPU technology. NTT Com group will continue to support PFN's research and the commercialization of their developed solutions with AI-related technologies and platforms.

"NVIDIA is excited to see the launch of Preferred Networks' private supercomputer, built in partnership with NTT Com Group. Computing power is the source of competitive advantage for deep learning, the core technology of modern AI. We have high expectations that the new system will accelerate Preferred Networks' business and contribute to Japan's economic growth."