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Hewlett Packard's (HPE) Cray Ex to Build KAUST's Shaheen III

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE - Free Report) recently announced that King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (“KAUST”) has selected the HPE Cray EX computer system to build the most powerful supercomputer of the Middle East, Shaheen III.

With Shaheen III, KAUST intends to accelerate scientific discovery in the Middle East and enable artificial intelligence (AI) at scale through advanced modeling, simulation, analytics and neural network training capabilities. The supercomputer will provide insights into areas such as clean combustion, Red Sea ecosystems, the Arabian tectonic plate and climate events.

HPE’s Cray EX supercomputer is a liquid-cooled, blade-based, high-density clustered computer system designed from the ground up to deliver the utmost in performance, scale, and density. The basic building blocks of the supercomputer are EX4000 liquid-cooled cabinet and EX2500 liquid-cooled rack. Cray EX will enable KAUST to apply significant computational power in modeling and simulating scientific problems faster and with higher accuracy than the university’s existing system.

Shaheen III is equipped with over 2,800 NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) Grace Hopper Superchips and powered by next-generation Advanced Micro Devices (AMD - Free Report) EPYC processors. The supercomputer is anticipated to deliver 100 petaflop/s of performance and outstanding AI modeling capabilities compared with its predecessor, Shaheen II’s 5.54 petaflop/s of performance.

 

NVIDIA’s Grace Hopper Superchip is a breakthrough accelerated central processing unit designed from the ground up for giant-scale AI and high-performance computing (“HPC”) applications. The superchip delivers up to 10X higher performance for applications running terabytes of data.

 

NVIDIA’s superchip solution will enable Shaheen III to develop techniques in core AI fields like deep learning, reinforcement learning, federated learning, visual computing and natural language processing, and provide unique opportunities to scale traditional HPC workloads.

Additionally, AMD’s EPYC processors will provide advanced support to Shaheen’s discoveries that have environmental impacts regionally and globally. It will minimize the impacts of data center operations while advancing sustainability objectives in support of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform.

Under the agreement, HPE will further combine its Machine Learning Development Environment solution with its supercomputing technologies. The open-source machine learning training platform will enable Shaheen users, which include KAUST’s faculty, students, postdoctoral students and researchers, and researchers from more than 20 external organizations, to conveniently develop and train AI models faster and with high accuracy.

The new supercomputer will be fully operational in 2023.

HPE has been benefiting from strong executions in clearing backlogs, improved supply chain and increased customer acceptance. Its efforts to shift focus to higher-margin offerings like Intelligent Edge and Aruba Central Hyperconverged Infrastructure are aiding its bottom-line results. Its target of saving at least $800 million annually by fiscal 2022-end through a cost optimization plan is a positive.

Zacks Rank & A Key Pick

Currently, Hewlett Packard and AMD have a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) each, while NVIDIA carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). Shares of HPE, AMD and NVDA have dropped 14.5%, 32.9% and 39.5%, respectively, in the past year.

A better-ranked stock from the broader Computer and Technology sector is EPAM Systems (EPAM - Free Report) carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for EPAM's third-quarter 2022 earnings has been revised 7 cents north to $2.52 per share over the past 30 days. For 2022, earnings estimates have moved 15 cents north to $9.96 per share in the past 30 days.

EPAM's earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 23%. Shares of the company have declined 37.1% in the past year.

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