At SC18 this week In Dallas Texas, Intel and Inspuir announced a new collaboration called 'X-Plan' which aims to accelerate AI innovation.
The collaboration covers several items, one of which is the joint innovation and software stack optimisation of AI servers around Intel’s next-generation chips, including the Purley Platform’s new micro-architecture Cascade Lake-SP and neural network processors NNP-L and NNP-I.
Based on Intel VNNI’s technology and Inspur’s leading edge in AI computing markets, both parties will provide more powerful and flexible AI accelerated computing and customisable computing architecture systems, so as to help global AI users cope with computing challenges and deliver faster innovations.
'Currently, the trends of AI industrialization are becoming more and more obvious. AI computing determines the speed of AI innovation. The ‘X-Plan’ will, via AI computing product innovation and talent training, inject the vitality of continuous innovation into global AI R&D institutions and commercial companies to promote the improvement and development of industrial AI,' said Liu Jun, GM of AI and HPC at Inspur.
The Inspur and Intel joint AI laboratory will bring together the engineering and R&D teams from both companies and focus on innovation in AI computing, algorithms and applications, to provide strong R&D support for the 'X-Plan'. In addition, Inspur and Intel plan to collaborate extensively with universities and research institutions to promote the development and improvement of AI ecosystems through talent training.
'AI has become an important form of computing for the present and the future. Its development depends on a good ecosystem. The ‘X-Plan’ will become an important part of Intel’s global AI computing ecosystem, with the goal of providing the global customers with efficient AI computing products and building a good talent development environment,' said Nash Palaniswamy, senior director of global technical computing at Intel.
Inspur has been investing heavily in the development of AI infrastructures in four layers, including a comprehensive computing platform, a complete management & performance suite, optimised deep learning frameworks, and end-to-end, agile, cost-efficient AI solutions for its industry customers. Inspur has become the most important AI server supplier for Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent and helps AI customers increase compute performance in voice, image, IVA, search, networking, etc. According to IDC’s 2017 China AI Infrastructure Market Survey Report, Inspur gained a 57 per cent market share in AI server, ranking first in the market.
