Today, AI has become a consensus and top-level strategy for thousands of industries and improving the quality and efficiency of the national economy. With the advancement of "new infrastructure", China's industrial AI and AI industrialization process is also accelerating, among which artificial intelligence computing power supports the upgrading needs of 5G, automatic driving, industrial Internet, smart cities, meta-universes, scientific research and many other fields.
If hydropower is the underlying energy source of the industrial age, then AI computing power is the development force of the AI era. IDC found that more than 90% of enterprises are using or planning to use AI within three years, and 74.5% of them expect to adopt a dedicated AI infrastructure platform with utility significance in the future to reduce the cost of innovation and improve the availability of computing power resources.
The increasing shortage of computing power has also promoted the construction of AI-oriented computing power infrastructure as one of the focuses of "new infrastructure". In the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the artificial intelligence development plans of many ministries and commissions, it is mentioned that we must vigorously carry out the construction of artificial intelligence basic computing power.
Among them, the intelligent computing center designed according to the artificial intelligence computing architecture, the use of AI server integration, and the provision of AI computing power support for the whole society has become the top priority of development and has entered the fast lane of construction.
Through the strategic deployment of major smart computing center solution providers, we have found a word that is highlighted: ecology.
It includes the upstream and downstream partner ecology of the computing industry, as well as the application ecology, talent ecology and industrial linkage ecology of the cities where the intelligent computing center lands. This also makes the delivery of the intelligent computing center different from the traditional data center, which is a long-term, systematic large-scale project.
As one of the industry benchmarks in the field of intelligent computing, Shuguang proposed on December 10 to build a "5A-level" intelligent computing infrastructure with the ability of "openness, integration, green, inclusiveness and service", hoping to accelerate the formation of a consensus and replicable model for the construction of intelligent computing infrastructure. Among them, openness and integration correspond to the ecological thinking of "harmony and win-win".
AI shines like sunshine on the land of China's industry, with the rise of the ecology, the intelligent computing industry and various cities will usher in a big change, re-install their "order" and occupancy in the intelligent era. Therefore, today we may wish to start from the core construction logic of the intelligent computing center, and sort out why the computing power base and ecology are first?
AI shines into reality: why does the "new infrastructure" of computing power need "harmony and win-win"
Before we understand the importance of ecology, we need to know: What does the Center really mean today?
Many scholars compare the intelligent computing center to the power plant of the last century, on the one hand, it has the attribute of public service, the power supply in the industrial era is convenient for thousands of households, and the large-scale AI computing power infrastructure in the intelligent era supports the intelligent life services of thousands of industries; in addition, it is through energy aggregation to improve efficiency, power plants reduce costs through large-scale production transmission, and cities also need to aggregate computing power through intelligent computing center clusters for efficient circulation and distribution. Power plants support industrialized large-scale production, and today, intelligent computing centers also need to support large-scale intelligent innovation. So, from the history of the development of power plants, perhaps we can get a revelation, that is, how to build and how to operate sustainably in the "energy base" of the large frontier?
As early as the 1870s, many companies began to use electrical energy for lighting and production, but it was not until September 4, 1882, that the inventor Edison built a "centralized" power plant with 6 engines, which was also the world's first commercial power plant, and since then, electricity has really begun to be used in human life.
Edison's power plant, Solved three problems: 1. scale problem, in the past everyone is using an engine to support a house or a street of lighting electricity, he through the engine cluster to reduce costs, so that the power becomes inclusive; 2. supply and demand problems, after production to sell to whom, determines whether the power plant can continue to operate, Edison company and the city cathedral and bridgehead hotel and other enterprises to reach cooperation to power supply, to achieve symbiosis and win-win; 3. transmission problem, direct current coverage is limited, to expand the market space needs a technological breakthrough, in 1886 Westin House engineer Stanley developed a transformer with excellent performance, so that the power produced by the power plant through the transformer to reduce the voltage , to achieve low-loss remote power supply.
It can be said that it is through the joint efforts and symbiosis of builders, users, upstream and downstream participants in the industrial chain that electric energy can change the face of people's lives in the world and play a huge role in economic and people's livelihood.
Back to the present, it is not difficult for us to find that whether the computing power of artificial intelligence can reach the standard of "new energy" also depends on whether the industrial chain can coexist and coexist, which also makes the importance of ecology more prominent.
First of all, the purpose of the intelligent computing center is to serve the industrial cluster of the city.
Many cities are willing to promote the development of intelligent computing centers, the fundamental reason is to see the correlation between AI computing power and local industries, artificial intelligence has a direct empowerment significance for the next economic development of the city, industrial upgrading, talent convergence, etc., which requires that the intelligent computing center not only need to be able to build, but also need to have full-stack advantages such as cost inclusiveness, high performance, rich software and hardware, industrial services and talent training, which is a large-scale system project, and it is difficult to complete all by relying on the self-development and self-construction of a manufacturer. It needs the integration and innovation of multiple ecological partners to meet.
Secondly, the current situation of the intelligent computing center is facing the technical challenge of certainty.
As an emerging thing, the intelligent computing center is still in the early stage of rapid development, and the AI industry chain is very long, from the underlying framework, model, algorithm, middle-level tools, platforms, and then to the upper-level innovative applications, etc., subdivided into countless vertical tracks. This leads to the fact that at present, the intelligent computing center also needs to continuously solve the real technical problems encountered in the network, terminal, application, service, green and low-carbon aspects. According to Ren Jingxuan, senior vice president of Shuguang, there are many technical genres and technical routes in every layer of the artificial intelligence industry chain today. Therefore, as the underlying support of the intelligent computing center, it must have an open mind of harmony and win-win results, so that the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain can truly consolidate the cornerstone of urban artificial intelligence through crowd intelligence innovation.
Third, the future of the intelligent computing center is facing uncertain business challenges.
If the technical challenge is a clear and realistic problem, then how the intelligent computing center will serve the urban industry in the future is an unknown full of uncertainty. Because AI application innovation is many and fast, new algorithms and models are emerging, and the needs of enterprises are changing rapidly, which is difficult for urban planners and infrastructure builders to accurately predict. However, the construction of the intelligent computing center must have elastic vitality, and cannot be greatly reduced with the development of AI technology, and the ability cannot keep up, which also gives birth to the construction of the intelligent computing center must rely on the integration and symbiosis of ecological forces, keep up with the technology trend and industrial changes in the development, continuously reconstruct and innovate, and ensure the best unit bit cost.
It can be seen that the construction of the intelligent computing center is not only the proper meaning of the times, but also an adventure with a long way to go. Chinese pay attention to "harmony and win-win", "harmony" out of the "Chinese", "pipe", representing different things, different views of mutual complementarity, synergy, symbiosis and common prosperity, the construction of the intelligent computing center is naturally inseparable from the ecological construction of harmony and win-win, through the joint efforts of the entire industrial chain, coordinated development, so that artificial intelligence truly shines in the vast land of China.
The 5A level system of Sugon of Zhongke makes the ecology of intelligent computing concrete
Ecology is a very macroscopic word, and a thousand enterprises have a thousand planning and imagination about ecology. For the fast-growing and new concept of the intelligent computing center, what should a healthy ecology look like?
To be honest, before Shuguang proposed the "5A-level" intelligent computing core capabilities, there was no consensus standard in the industry. As a benchmark for China's computing industry, everyone is also looking forward to Shuguang to give its own thoughts and answers. Therefore, on December 10, Sugon announced that it would face the new requirements of the new era and build a "5A-level" intelligent computing infrastructure with the ability of "openness, integration, green, inclusiveness and service".
Among them, how to create a "harmonious and win-win" intelligent computing ecology has become concrete and standardized.
First, the ecological integration of the planning stage.
Artificial intelligence and the economy are more closely integrated, therefore, as early as the planning stage of the Intelligent Computing Center, Sugon will combine the artificial intelligence base with the local traditional advantageous industries, talent base, development direction, etc., and carry out top-level design and planning. For example, some cities are suitable for starting from 100P computing power, and some are 300P at the beginning, which must adapt to the actual needs of the local area and can support the rapid development of the industry for a long time. The integrated development of the intelligent computing center and the local industrial ecology is the first step of "harmony and win-win".
Second, the strong compatibility of upper-level applications.
In the "5A level" capability, Sugon put "openness" in the first place. As a public computing power service platform, the intelligent computing infrastructure must be compatible with the mature mainstream hardware and software technology ecology. For example, many cloud service providers and AI companies have launched powerful pre-trained large models, and enterprises need to adapt each large model when applying it, which is very troublesome and requires a considerable number of engineers to complete.
With the aim of multi-faceted collaboration, Sugon's "5A-level" intelligent computing center builds a multi-integrated infrastructure through the comprehensive openness and compatibility of chips, algorithms, frameworks and models, so as to achieve the maximum ease of use of the computing power base and reduce the migration cost of enterprises to artificial intelligence.
Third, the open integration of cooperation models.
As mentioned earlier, the artificial intelligence ecology needs to bring together mass creation and wisdom, so in the cooperation model, the "5A-level" intelligent computing center of Sugon also emphasizes "integration", and the coordinated development of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain is formed to form an ecological effect of "fish swarms", so that the intelligent computing industry can develop steadily and well.
For example, let the core enterprises with strong R & D capabilities focus on the underlying capabilities such as innovation breakthroughs and industrial resources, build corresponding basic applications, some small AI enterprises and traditional enterprises can directly use relevant software and hardware for scene innovation, create personalized solutions, so that artificial intelligence can play an efficient role in the industry, while the builders of intelligent computing centers need to take into account the requirements of data, operation, service, green environmental protection, etc., to help the virtuous circle development of infrastructure.
From planning to landing to development, the ecological integration road of "5A-level" intelligent computing infrastructure is clearly presented in front of us, and has become one of the standards that can be referred to in the industry, setting a benchmark for the development of the intelligent computing industry.
At present, Shuguang intelligent computing infrastructure has been built and planned in many cities across the country, through the "5A level" empowerment, comprehensively promote the sharing of AI computing resources, and help the regional artificial intelligence industry ecological prosperity.
Living water for the source: opening up the "energy" of smart China
Further, what kind of value can be released by such a coordinated development of the whole industrial chain to local cities, enterprises and people's livelihood and even the whole of China is what kind of value many people are concerned about.
Ask where the canal is as clear as promised, in order to have a source of living water, The "energy" thoroughfare built by Shuguang gathers the power of industrial ecology has three practical significance.
1. Racing mechanism to activate the ability to innovate.
We all know that AI should and must be combined with the industry in theory and logic, and then bring economic and people's livelihood value. But if ai computing power is not enough, AI infrastructure performance is not strong enough, platform AI applications are not rich enough, then can it really trigger a broad intelligent revolution on the industrial side?
To solve various challenges in the process of intelligence, it relies on the "racing mechanism" of a hundred flowers blooming and harmonious development, so that those truly breakthrough and efficient technological innovations can run out, continuously make up for technical shortcomings, meet the diversified needs of various types of users who are constantly changing, different scenarios, and different application cycles, and push industrial intelligence to a broader space for development. In this process, more enterprises and partners will also gain new market opportunities and share the dividends of the development of the times.
2. Inclusive value, unlock the shackles of cost.
Providing inclusive computing power "energy" at a reasonable cost and reducing financial pressure is also the proper meaning of public service facilities. If you want to reduce costs, in addition to continuous improvement in technology and reasonable pricing of enterprises, another important way is to select types through consortiums.
Zhang Yunquan, a researcher at the Institute of Computing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and secretary general of the CCF High Performance Computing Professional Committee, once shared that one of the costs of building a smart computing center is the hardware cost of chips and server equipment. Through the win-win ecosystem, Sugon co-construction of the "5A-level" intelligent computing center in the form of a "consortium" can reduce hardware costs through reasonable selection, such as using the new generation computing platform developed by partners to meet the needs of low-precision computing while saving costs for users.
It is foreseeable that with the continuous prosperity of the intelligent computing industry, the cost of AI computing power in the entire society will be further reduced, and the invisible shackles restricting the development of AI will be unlocked.
3. Cities leap up to empower long-term development.
Today, all provinces and cities hope to seize the wave of artificial intelligence, develop high-tech industries, build competitive location advantages, and achieve a leap in urban strength. If the city wants to develop, the core foundation is industrial upgrading and talent siphon effect. These two points are not something that can be achieved overnight after the intelligent computing center lands.
On the one hand, how many traditional enterprises integrate artificial intelligence into production and find the best scene integration point requires technicians and industry experts to constantly collide and run in, and go deep into the front line of the industry to find ideas. At the same time, the supply of engineers with AI development capabilities is in short supply, and they are more inclined to choose innovative enterprises with long-term development potential and competitiveness.
With the "5A-level" intelligent computing center driving ecological prosperity, giving full play to the synergistic advantages of the Chinese Academy of Sciences itself, integrating scientific research institutes, technology enterprises, local industries and other forces, and providing systematic support for urban development, the city's upgrading strategy will be implemented faster and more steadily. In this process, the economy and people's livelihood will continue to be combined with artificial intelligence, changing your and my lives, so that AI flows around like water and electricity.
From the invention of fire, the use of coal to the discovery of electromagnetism, the history of progress in human society is also a history of constantly harnessing energy. How to make good use of "computing power" energy determines whether China can take the lead in pushing open the door of the intelligent revolution. This is the opportunity of the times, and it is also the responsibility and responsibility of a generation of Chinese science and technology innovators.
In this process, we need not only the heroes who are brave and pioneering like Shuguang, but also the joint participation of thousands of industrial chain partners. There is no shortcut on the road of intelligent ecology, only a little bit of technological breakthrough, step-by-step industrial collaboration, and open integration and embrace again and again, the ecology can be truly established.
Experience the great changes once in a century, and witness the dawn of intelligence sprinkled all over China.