Dell Technologies Inc. and Nvidia Corp. today detailed Project Helix, a joint initiative designed to help companies run generative artificial intelligence software in their own on-premises data centers.

The initiative has produced a series of offerings dubbed validated designs. Those are Dell servers equipped with the company’s internally developed management tools, as well as Nvidia chips and software. The systems are specifically optimized to support AI training and inference use cases.

“We are at a historic moment, when incredible advances in generative AI are intersecting with enterprise demand to do more with less,” said Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang. “With Dell Technologies, we’ve designed extremely scalable, highly efficient infrastructure that enables enterprises to transform their business by securely using their own data to build and operate generative AI applications.”

Project Helix is based on Dell’s PowerEdge R760xa server. The machine can be configured with up to two chips from Intel Corp.’s latest Sapphire Rapids processor line. According to Dell, the chips have as many as 112 cores between them depending on the configuration and are supported by up to eight terabytes of memory. 

Companies can also equip PowerEdge R760xa servers with Nvidia’s newest and fastest GPU, the H100. The chip features 80 billion transistors produced using a four-nanometer process. According to Nvidia, it can train AI models up to nine times faster than its previous-generation silicon.

The H100 includes a module specifically designed to accelerate large language models, one of the most popular types of generative AI. Large models can organize the information they ingest in multiple data formats. According to Nvidia, the H100’s acceleration module automatically picks the format that provides the fastest performance. 

Project Helix gives customers access to Nvidia AI Enterprise, a software suite the chipmaker offers alongside its GPUs. The suite includes more than 50 tools for building and deploying AI models. Additionally, it offers several prepackaged neural networks.

“Project Helix gives enterprises purpose-built AI models to more quickly and securely gain value from the immense amounts of data underused today,” said Dell co-Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke. 

Project Helix systems features software from not only Nvidia but also Dell. In particular, customers can use Dell’s CloudIQ observability platform to monitor their on-premises AI infrastructure for potential issues. According to Dell, the platform uses machine learning to automatically spot malfunctions.

Also included in Project Helix is the hardware maker’s Secured Component Verification technology. According to Dell, the technology installs an encrypted piece of data called a certificate on its servers after they’re manufactured. If hackers attempt to tamper with a server while it’s being shipped to a customer, the certificate indicates that malicious changes have been made. 

Image: Dell