NVSwitch is used to connect multiple NVLinks for all-to-all GPU high speed communications within a single node. It is a huge multi-node, multi-GPU system that uses NVlink for high-speed communication between GPUs.

Vela’s platform is built on OpenShift, making it easily transferable to any cloud or hybrid environment. Representative graphic illustrating the architecture of Vela IBM Vela: architected for near bare metal performance This provided Vela twith the capability to operate at the same level of performance as a physical machine while also offering VM flexibility. This was accomplished by configuring the host for virtualization but ensuring all devices and connections were accurately represented inside the VM. The AI supercomputer design team used clever engineering to combine the advantages of node capabilities (such as GPUs, CPUs, networking, and storage) with the flexibility of virtual machines (VMs). Nodes can be configured in one of two ways, either as physical machines (commonly called 'bare metal') that maximize AI performance or as virtual machines (VM) that provide support teams with the flexiblity to adjust the infrastructure and allocate resources between workloads. To function properly, AI infrastructure needs nodes comprised of many GPUs. Cloud’s high redundancy would ensure the system would continue to operate in the event of a component failure.

With cloud, AI researchers had greater flexibility and more independence to access to the latest software tools and libraries needed for models.

Software could be configured on each node to meet the needs of research teams.

It provided access to various public cloud services for enhanced security and privacy,.

Cloud makes it easy for researchers and customers to collaborate with each other,.

The IBM Research team responsible for building Vela decided that building an AI supercomputer in the cloud provided the most efficient and effective way to achieve its goals: A comparison of the HPC AI system stack (left) and Cloud-native AI system stack IBM

Red giant mojo