Hardware is having a ’90s moment, and it’s turned high-performance computing into the rockstar. That’s the biggest takeaway from this year’s Supercompute conference, as SiliconANGLE Media’s livestream news desk, theCUBE, delivers analyst-led insights from SC24. Among the top ecosystem players, Dell Technologies Inc. maintained a large presence at the show, demonstrating its AI Factory, liquid cooling technology and an assortment of AI-ready chips.

Joining theCUBE for real-time commentary were several members of Dell’s ecosystem, contextualizing the integrated nature of scaling powerful computing systems on a path to redefine business, healthcare, government and society at large.

Here’s a special recap of key themes discussed with Dell executives and partners during SC24, and be sure to check out SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s full coverage. Find more articles here, and our on-demand broadcast here. (* Disclosure below.)

Scaling modern AI workloads

Manya Rastogi, technical marketing engineer at Dell, delved into the evolution of AI workloads, including inferencing, fine-tuning and emerging applications, such as autonomous digital agents. Live demonstrations of multimodal AI capabilities and chain-of-thought reasoning were showcased.

“Influencing, distributed fine-tuning — those are the main AI/ML/DL workloads everyone is expecting,” Rastogi said.

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/19/silicon-diversity-sc24/

Innovating cooling for high-powered computing systems

Tim Shedd, engineering technologist at Dell, spoke about the balancing act required to deliver innovative cooling solutions while maintaining flexibility for diverse customer needs. He highlighted advancements in liquid and air cooling technologies designed to optimize both performance and serviceability.

“We’re growing the amount of the computer that is liquid-cooled, but we have to leave some parts open to air so that we can quickly service it, so we can allow the customer to change up … That’s easy to do in our systems. But that also means that we’re not just innovating in,” Shedd explained.

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/20/direct-liquid-cooling-seguente-dell-nvidia-sc24/

Rethinking data management for an AI-native future

Geeta Vaghela, senior director of product management at Dell, discussed the transition from legacy data systems to AI-native approaches. She highlighted the importance of breaking down data silos and architecting systems designed for AI’s unique demands.

“Data management takes a lens beyond infrastructure into data,” Vaghela remarked.

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/20/ai-in-cancer-research-transforming-breakthroughs-msk-sc24/

Alternative compute strategies for AI

Saurabh Kapoor, director of product management and strategy at Dell, detailed efforts to diversify AI compute options with AMD GPUs and modular AI Factory solutions. He stressed the importance of sustainability and decentralization to foster innovation and reduce reliance on single vendors.

“Having alternative solutions out there for people to use is really important for the safety and growth of AI as a whole,” Kapoor said.

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/20/ai-compute-solutions-sc24/

The AI Factory revolution

Adam Glick, senior director of AI portfolio marketing at Dell, unveiled the AI Factory, a scalable infrastructure model designed to reinvent AI development from the data center to the edge.

“The whole idea is that you’ve got something that’s massively scalable,” Glick noted.

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/21/dell-ai-factory-solutions-sc24/

Versatile server configurations for diverse workloads

​​David Schmidt, senior director of PowerEdge product management at Dell, showcased PowerEdge R7725 servers and their ability to support various use cases, such as video analysis for smart cities and enterprise IT. He highlighted Dell’s focus on adaptability for industries with evolving needs.

“We wanted to give enterprise IT customers that kind of large-scale, highly adaptable system,” Schmidt said.

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/21/ai-data-center-solutions-sc24/

Exascale computing and liquid cooling innovations

Armando Acosta, director of HPC product management at Dell, explored the rise of exascale computing and the cooling technologies required for high-performance CPUs and GPUs. He emphasized Dell’s commitment to standardization, modularity, and customer-centric innovation.

“If you want the highest performance, you want the best CPU, the highest performing GPU… guess what? You have to do direct liquid cooling,” Acosta stated.

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/21/exascale-computing-sc24/

Open standards and AI networking

Ihab Tarazi (pictured), senior vice president and chief technology officer of core, AI and networking at Dell, discussed strategy to align with open standards and accelerate AI system development.

“Networking is the most important element in the performance of an AI system… We’ve tuned our network now at 97% throughput,” Tarazi said.

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/21/modular-ai-sc24/

Accelerating innovation with modular design

Arun Narayanan, SVP of compute and networking product management at Dell highlighted how modular components have transformed Dell’s product development process, reducing cycles from 18 months to six.

“We’ve changed almost every process in our company to hit the inflection points of the market,” Narayanan shared.

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/20/ai-factories-dell-broadcom-denvr-dataworks-sc24/

Future-proofing AI networking

James Wynia, director of product management networking, Enterprise Solutions Group, at Dell, emphasized a focus on scalable, resilient AI networking solutions and the importance of standards like Ethernet and innovations that improve fabric management and bandwidth for future AI workloads.

“There’s no debate, Ethernet is the de facto standard for all things networking,” Wynia explained. “There are niche opportunities where things show up like InfiniBand and we can list a bunch of others, but if you stack up all the networks, IP is by far the dominant player.”

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/22/scalable-ai-networks-sc24/

Data management services for AI applications

Scott Bils, VP of product management and professional services at Dell, discussed Dell’s comprehensive approach to data management, focusing on automation, compliance, and the scalability needed for AI workloads. He also highlighted Dell’s sustainable data center services as critical for meeting regulatory and energy efficiency goals.

“Data is the critical driver of getting value from AI and gen AI,” Bils remarked.

Read the full story: https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/22/building-robust-ai-networking-pipeline-automation-sc24/ 

Find all of our reporting here, and watch the full playlist from our Nov. 19-21 broadcast below:

(* Disclosure: Dell Technologies Inc. sponsored these segments of theCUBE. Neither Dell nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE