NVIDIA Project DIGITS: Your Personal AI Supercomputer

NVIDIA, the world's largest AI chip designer and manufacturer, on Jan 6, unveiled the world's first personal mini AI supercomputer.

This device has been designed to be used by students, developers, researchers and scientists who work with Artificial Intelligence (AI). One of its uses is running AI models, which till today, requires you to tap into data centres via the cloud.

A visualization of the device (the small box to the left of the monitor) by NVIDIA.
Credit: NVIDIA.

While the design has not yet been finalised, it will be small enough to fit on your desk or carry around with you in a bag.

Features-

1. Insane Performance

Powered by the NVIDIA GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, Project DIGITS offers a mammoth 1 petaFLOPS of AI performance.

One FLOPS refers to a floating point operation per second or one calculation (basic arithmetic) being done every second. 1 petaflop is 10¹⁵ such operations every second. It is a performance metric of an AI supercomputer.

This makes Project DIGIT one of the most powreful personal AI supercomputers available now. If you do the math properly, it's around 1000 times more powerful than a laptop.

2. Huge Memory

Each Project DIGITS features 128GB of unified, coherent memory, allowing for seamless multitasking and training AI models. It also boasts up to 4TB of NVMe storage, providing ample space for datasets, models, and applications..

NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a high-speed storage protocol designed to enhance the performance of modern SSDs, offering faster data transfer rates and reduced delay compared to traditional storage methods.

The cross section of Project DIGITS.
Credit: NVIDIA.

3. Impressive AI Capability

While the 1 petaFLOPS of project is not as much processing power as the most powerful supercomputers (upto 1000 petaFLOPS), it's still powerful enough to run a ChatGPT-like model from your desktop, which I think is pretty impressive.

4. Compatability

Project DIGITS runs on a Linux-based Operating System (OS) that supports popular frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Jupyter notebooks, ensuring compatibility with most AI workflows.

5. Affordability

With a starting price of just $3000, NVIDIA aims to make this technology accessible to a broader audience. While the price might still seem a bit high, remember that you're essentially getting an entire supercomputer for just $3000.

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Interested people can get notified about its availibility at NVIDIA's official website here-

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/project-digits/

NVIDIA’s Project DIGITS represents a significant step forward in making AI tools and resources available to individuals. By eliminating the dependency on cloud services, it allows users to work on sensitive projects securely and offline.

Whether you’re an AI enthusiast like me or a seasoned researcher, NVIDIA’s Project DIGITS promises to redefine what’s possible in personal AI computing. With its robust hardware and software integration, it’s poised to become a game-changer in the AI ecosystem.

Cheers,
Aarav Iyer