AMD Instinct™ MI200 Adopted for Large-Scale AI Training in Microsoft Azure

Rhea-AI Summary

On May 26, 2022, AMD announced a collaboration with Microsoft Azure, marking Azure as the first public cloud to deploy AMD Instinct MI200 accelerators for large-scale AI training. This partnership aims to enhance AI performance and developer experience by integrating AMD's technology with PyTorch on Azure. AMD's MI200 accelerators are designed to support powerful AI and HPC applications, contributing to advancing scientific research. The deployment of MI200 further strengthens AMD's position in the AI accelerator market and showcases its ongoing collaboration with Microsoft.

Positive

• Microsoft Azure becomes the first public cloud to deploy AMD Instinct MI200 accelerators.
• Collaboration enhances AI training performance and developer experience on Azure.
• AMD's MI200 accelerators are expected to power state-of-the-art supercomputers, boosting AMD's market position.

Negative

• None.

ꟷ Microsoft Azure is the first public cloud to deploy AMD Instinct MI200 accelerators ꟷ

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) and Microsoft continued their collaboration in the cloud, with Microsoft announcing the use of AMD Instinct™ MI200 accelerators to power large scale AI training workloads. In addition, Microsoft announced it is working closely with the PyTorch Core team and AMD data center software team to optimize the performance and developer experience for customers running PyTorch on Microsoft Azure and ensure that developers’ PyTorch projects take advantage of the performance and features of AMD Instinct accelerators.

“AMD Instinct MI200 accelerators provide customers with cutting-edge AI and HPC performance and will power many of the world’s fastest supercomputer systems that push the boundaries of science,” said Brad McCredie, corporate vice president, Data Center and Accelerated Processing, AMD. “Our work with Microsoft to enable large-scale AI training and inference in the cloud not only highlights the expansive technology collaboration between the two companies, but the performance capabilities of AMD Instinct MI200 accelerators and how they will ultimately help customers advance the growing demands for AI workloads.”

“We’re proud to build upon our long-term commitment to innovation with AMD and make Azure the first public cloud to deploy clusters of the AMD Instinct MI200 accelerator for large scale AI training,” said Eric Boyd, corporate vice president, Azure AI, Microsoft. “We have started testing the MI200 with our own AI workloads and are seeing great performance, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with AMD to bring customers more performance, choice and flexibility for their AI needs.”

The AMD Instinct MI200 accelerators join other AMD products being used at Microsoft Azure including the newly announced Azure HBv3 virtual machines which use 3^rd Gen AMD EPYC™ processors with AMD 3D V-Cache™ Technology, and numerous other instances for confidential computing, general purpose workloads, memory bound workloads, visual workloads and more.

Supporting Resources

• Learn more about AMD Instinct™ 200 series accelerators
• Learn more about AMD and Azure
• Learn more about AMD CDNA 2 architecture
• Follow AMD on Twitter

About AMD

For more than 50 years AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies. Billions of people, leading Fortune 500 businesses and cutting-edge scientific research institutions around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work and play. AMD employees are focused on building leadership high-performance and adaptive products that push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information about how AMD is enabling today and inspiring tomorrow, visit the AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) website, blog, LinkedIn and Twitter pages.

©2022 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, CDNA, EPYC, Instinct, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.

FAQ

What is the significance of AMD's partnership with Microsoft Azure regarding the MI200 accelerators?

The partnership allows Azure to be the first public cloud to deploy AMD MI200 accelerators, enhancing AI training capabilities.

When was the announcement made about AMD's MI200 accelerators with Microsoft Azure?

The announcement was made on May 26, 2022.

How do AMD Instinct MI200 accelerators impact AI workloads in cloud computing?

They are designed to provide high performance for large-scale AI training, improving overall efficiency and capability in cloud environments.

Which AI framework is being optimized for use with AMD's MI200 accelerators on Azure?

AMD is working with the PyTorch Core team to optimize the performance of PyTorch on Azure using MI200 accelerators.

What other AMD products are being utilized by Microsoft Azure?

In addition to MI200 accelerators, Azure is also using 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors with 3D V-Cache technology.