2021 AI, HPDA, and Future Technology Trends

AI and HPDA applications continue to grow in utilization and importance in the HPC space, altering the direction of system architecture and design as well as widening the scope of HPC and AI. HPC system architects now have to factor in a variety of processor technologies as well as interconnect, storage, and memory configurations to handle a more diverse set of workloads. Not only are HPC sites adopting emergent AI and HPDA workloads, but some are applying AI techniques to traditional modelling and simulation workloads to uncover new capabilities and solutions. This frequent pairing of simulation and analytics requires that HPC system designs be both compute and data friendly. As a result, recent designs are starting to reverse the emphasis on compute-centrism of past decades and establishing a better balance. Insights into the critical factors driving these and other trends are detailed in the 2021 iteration of Hyperion Research’s annual Multi-Client Study (MCS) end users’ report, AI and HPDA Usage and Future Technology Trends. Key findings from the report are summarized in this document.