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Facebook Open Sources Its AI Hardware as It Races Google

32 points by dsr12 11y ago

magicalist 11y ago
ugh, Wired is the worst. Here's an actual blogpost from engineers on the project: https://code.facebook.com/posts/1687861518126048/facebook-to-open-source-ai-hardware-design/ https://code.facebook.com/posts/1687861518126048/facebook-to... It seems the main thing here is 8 GPUs in a box that doesn't need "special cooling and other unique infrastructure to operate", it can just go into existing racks. The "flexibility to configure between multiple PCI-e topologies" sounds interesting, but there's no more information on that. edit: oh, already been submitted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10712038 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10712038
namelezz 11y ago
And how much does one need to spend on implementing the design? For software one can clone, build, and start playing with the APIs. The cost is almost 0.
chubot 11y ago
Has anyone here ever built an Open Compute box, or is it only the kind of thing that makes sense by the rackful? I guess there is nowhere to buy 1 or 2 cases? I would like a high end server box at home, with GPUs, and it would be nice to have a configuration known to work, down to the Linux distro and drivers. Though I'm guessing they are louder than I would want, because they don't care about noise as much with server hardware.
- jonnycowboy 11y ago
  In this case the price is prohibitive. That server has 8 Nvidia K40's, each between 1500-2000$. So you're looking at a 15-20k$ server!
  - smhx 11y ago
    NVIDIA M40s, which are the new cards, so double that estimate.
  - chubot 11y ago
    Well I was asking about OpenCompute in general, not just the new GPU box. And in theory, the price per FLOP should be better than almost anything out there... if I actually needed those FLOPs it would be cost effective :)
- ansible 11y ago
  I would like a high end server box at home, with GPUs, and it would be nice to have a configuration known to work, down to the Linux distro and drivers. Though I'm guessing they are louder than I would want, because they don't care about noise as much with server hardware. You can buy high-end server boxes right now, with a similar configuration. The FB designed hardware may be a little more energy efficient, easier to service, and it fits into their infrastructure better. But it isn't fundamentally different than a server you can buy from, say, SuperMicro. You can buy and put together that kind of thing yourself, or you can get an integrator to do it for you, and have them do the initial testing and burn-in to ensure there won't be problems.
  - chubot 11y ago
    But at what price? I was hoping to get something close to the cost of the parts. From the research I've done, you end up paying a big premium for server hardware, and especially so if you have someone do the OS installation for you. SuperMicro looks like it provides every configuration under the sun, which drives the price way up. The appeal of OpenCompute is that if you know they're running 10,000 copies of this exact configuration, the kinks are likely to be worked out. It isn't trivial to do this work yourself, even though I've built normal PCs before. Good blog post on building your own: https://blog.pinboard.in/2012/05/a_cloud_of_my_own/ https://blog.pinboard.in/2012/05/a_cloud_of_my_own/
meeper16 11y ago
Facebook and some others started out one upping myspace (myspace one upped friendster) and was a weak technology company. Text entry boxes and messaging do not make you a strong technology company especially when you're copying frameworks. Google's started in AI and as a strong algorithmically based technology company and has continued. Facebook has a long way to go along with many other companies.

32 points by dsr12 11y ago

ugh, Wired is the worst. Here's an actual blogpost from engineers on the project: https://code.facebook.com/posts/1687861518126048/facebook-to-open-source-ai-hardware-design/ https://code.facebook.com/posts/1687861518126048/facebook-to... It seems the main thing here is 8 GPUs in a box that doesn't need "special cooling and other unique infrastructure to operate", it can just go into existing racks. The "flexibility to configure between multiple PCI-e topologies" sounds interesting, but there's no more information on that. edit: oh, already been submitted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10712038 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10712038

namelezz 11y ago

And how much does one need to spend on implementing the design? For software one can clone, build, and start playing with the APIs. The cost is almost 0.

chubot 11y ago

Has anyone here ever built an Open Compute box, or is it only the kind of thing that makes sense by the rackful? I guess there is nowhere to buy 1 or 2 cases? I would like a high end server box at home, with GPUs, and it would be nice to have a configuration known to work, down to the Linux distro and drivers. Though I'm guessing they are louder than I would want, because they don't care about noise as much with server hardware.

jonnycowboy 11y ago
In this case the price is prohibitive. That server has 8 Nvidia K40's, each between 1500-2000$. So you're looking at a 15-20k$ server!
- smhx 11y ago
  NVIDIA M40s, which are the new cards, so double that estimate.
- chubot 11y ago
  Well I was asking about OpenCompute in general, not just the new GPU box. And in theory, the price per FLOP should be better than almost anything out there... if I actually needed those FLOPs it would be cost effective :)
ansible 11y ago
I would like a high end server box at home, with GPUs, and it would be nice to have a configuration known to work, down to the Linux distro and drivers. Though I'm guessing they are louder than I would want, because they don't care about noise as much with server hardware. You can buy high-end server boxes right now, with a similar configuration. The FB designed hardware may be a little more energy efficient, easier to service, and it fits into their infrastructure better. But it isn't fundamentally different than a server you can buy from, say, SuperMicro. You can buy and put together that kind of thing yourself, or you can get an integrator to do it for you, and have them do the initial testing and burn-in to ensure there won't be problems.
- chubot 11y ago
  But at what price? I was hoping to get something close to the cost of the parts. From the research I've done, you end up paying a big premium for server hardware, and especially so if you have someone do the OS installation for you. SuperMicro looks like it provides every configuration under the sun, which drives the price way up. The appeal of OpenCompute is that if you know they're running 10,000 copies of this exact configuration, the kinks are likely to be worked out. It isn't trivial to do this work yourself, even though I've built normal PCs before. Good blog post on building your own: https://blog.pinboard.in/2012/05/a_cloud_of_my_own/ https://blog.pinboard.in/2012/05/a_cloud_of_my_own/

meeper16 11y ago

Facebook and some others started out one upping myspace (myspace one upped friendster) and was a weak technology company. Text entry boxes and messaging do not make you a strong technology company especially when you're copying frameworks. Google's started in AI and as a strong algorithmically based technology company and has continued. Facebook has a long way to go along with many other companies.