HPC System Processor Preference: x86 Continues to Dominate

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Microsoft have entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), formalizing NOAA's commitment to using Microsoft Azure cloud computing resources in the pursuit of NOAA's mission to build a Climate[1]Ready Nation by 2030. Several initiatives are envisioned whereby NOAA scientists and engineers will work with Microsoft experts to leverage Azure's machine learning and HPC capabilities: ▪ Fast-tracking innovative contributions to NOAA Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) earth systems modeling and research ▪ Applying machine learning capabilities to improve models supporting air quality, smoke, and particulate pollution forecasts, as well as relevant NOAA climate models ▪ Accelerating NOAA Fisheries' survey and observations data collection and management ▪ Creating new ocean observations cataloging efforts ▪ Designing resilient and accessible weather modeling and forecasting that can incorporate external data sources with NOAA enterprise data

Expertise is now a major concern for both HPC and AI centers, outranked only by budget concerns. When asked about barriers to furthering AI capabilities, AI-specific expertise was a significant concern. Popular responses included access to AI expertise (49%), skills in AI model development (47%), and skills in AI programming (36%). This development comes at a time when a third of HPC sites (33%) report a lack of knowledge or skilled staff and identified this issue among their top three barriers to expanding on-premises HPC. This data is from the eighth annual study of Hyperion Research's high-performance computing (HPC) end-user-based tracking of the HPC marketplace. It included 181 HPC end-user sites with 3,830 HPC systems.