The combination of AMD EPYC processors and AMD Instinct GPUs delivered excellent scalability at a lower price so that Northern Data could bring affordable HPC applications to the market for smaller-scale customers. For example, Northern Data was able to lower the cost of training ML systems using AMD. A full training cycle could be much more cost-efficient than before: it would cost €1,987 ($2,339) to run one experiment with a major cloud service provider, while with AMD they could do it for €1,100 ($1,295) – almost half the price.
Companies like those in the social media space are increasingly reliant on AI and ML. With capabilities like Natural Language Processing (NLP) becoming more expensive, Northern Data could give AI start-ups a chance to be competitive against the larger players, which have millions to blow on training.
Low carbon footprint, brand new industries
