Nvidia's Volta-based Tesla v100 GPU offers the power of 100 CPUs, claims CEO Jensen Huang

New GPU contains 21 billion transistors and offers five-times the performance of Pascal, claims Nvidia

Nvidia has unveiled a new GPU, the Tesla V100, based on the company's new Volta micro-architecture and boasting 21 billion transistors, which CEO Jensen Huang claims will offer performance equivalent to 100 CPUs.

Huang added that the Volta GPU architecture offers a 15-times performance boost compared to the Maxwell architecture launched just two years ago, and a five-times improvement compared to Pascal, which only debuted last year.

The new devices will be used to power the acceleration of deep learning neural networks in everything from autonomous vehicles to curing cancer.

"Artificial intelligence is driving the greatest technology advances in human history," said Huang "It will automate intelligence and spur a wave of social progress unmatched since the industrial revolution."

"Deep learning, a groundbreaking AI approach that creates computer software that learns, has insatiable demand for processing power. Thousands of Nvidia engineers spent over three years crafting Volta to help meet this need, enabling the industry to realize AI's life-changing potential."

In practical terms, a single Tesla V100 can replace an entire row of data centre servers and yet fits in the palm of the hand.

It pairs CUDA cores with 640 Tensor cores to max out at over 120 teraflops peek performance.

HBM2 DRAM manufactured in partnership with Samsung offers 50 per cent more bandwidth that previous GPUs at 900 GB/sec, while NV Link, a new interconnect, offers twice the throughput between GPUs when linked together.

This can be in the form of the DGX AI supercomputer or the new personal supercomputer workstation the DGX Station (a snip at $69,000).

The Volta reference model that Jensen had on him for the demo was so rare that he joked that it was worth $3bn. In reality, the figure is $149,000 for a DGX-1 with V100.

Alternatively, you can order a DGX-1 with P100 (Pascal) now and get a free upgrade to the V100 when it arrives later in the year, which if you're buying at any kind of scale would represent a hefty saving.

The personal version offers a viable, personal supercomputer, powerful enough for personal AI and quiet enough not to annoy the rest of the office.

Also announced is a new Volta based cloud stack for supercomputing without the initial outlay courtest of the Nvidia GPU Cloud.

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