IBM announces Power9 processor for artificial intelligence systems

Commercial

IBM on Friday unveiled its next-generation Power Systems Servers that includes its new processor that will work for artificial intelligence systems that require heavy computing capability.

"Built specifically for compute-intensive AI workloads, the new POWER9 systems are capable of improving the training times of deep learning frameworks by nearly four times, allowing enterprises to build more accurate AI applications, faster," IBM said in a statement.

With a focus on AI and machine learning, it can do a lot of tasks with greater efficiency.

As a result of using this new, high-powered system, data scientists can build applications faster, ranging from deep learning insights in scientific research, real-time fraud detection and credit risk analysis.

"IT infrastructure needs to be re-designed for the AI era, which lets companies analyse data in milliseconds and make decisions driven by data. AI workloads demand new hardware and software paradigms and the infrastructure to deliver data-driven workloads," said Viswanath Ramaswamy, Director – Systems, India/South Asia.

"The P9 architecture aims to transform computing across every industry and profession, turning client data into faster insights where inferences can be drawn quicker and faster to market," he added.

To cater to the increasing demands for faster computing and data processing, IBM set out to design the POWER9 chip four years ago.

With PowerAI, IBM's AI software toolkit, the tech giant has optimized and simplified the deployment of deep learning frameworks and libraries on the Power architecture with acceleration, allowing data scientists to be up and running in minutes.