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Why is this called a whitepaper, as this is more of a documentation and architecture overview of the cluster? Wow a CLOS topology for networking, very innovativ

Why is this called a whitepaper, as this is more of a documentation and architecture overview of the cluster? Wow a CLOS topology for networking, very innovative. Details on NVLink would be great. For example, the needs and problems solved by their custom cables seemingly required by NVLink would be worth a whitepaper. Don't get me wrong, this is still great the general public can get a glimpse into Grace Hopper. And they do a good job of simplifying while throwing around mind-boggling numbers (the NVLink bandwidth is insane, though no words on latency, crucial for remote memory access).

syntaxing 3y ago
Agreed, seems like an application note more than a white paper.
mmaunder 3y ago
> Why is this called a whitepaper, as this is more of a documentation and architecture overview of the cluster? That’s what a marketing white paper is and does. It’s not an academic paper.
- danpalmer 3y ago
  I was always taught that “whitepapers” were this sort of thing and were distinct from academic papers. However this seems to be industry or ecosystem specific because the cryptocurrency ecosystem uses “whitepaper” to mean their academic papers, or at least their approximation of them.
- flakiness 3y ago
  To be fair NVIDIA used to publish more detailed "white paper" for their GPUs ex. [1] and CPU textbooks like H&P [2] draws a lot of details from these. This less detailed "whitepaper" still has a scent of these old tradition. [1] https://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/nvidia-ampere-ga-102-gpu-architecture-whitepaper-v2.pdf https://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/nvidia-ampere-ga-102-gpu-... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Architecture-Quantitative-John-Hennessy/dp/012383872X https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Architecture-Quantitative-Jo...
callalex 3y ago
NVDA has spent too much time surrounded by cryptocurrency hacks that published “whitepapers” left and right with zero technical information or innovation. As they say, never get high on your own supply.

syntaxing 3y ago

Agreed, seems like an application note more than a white paper.

mmaunder 3y ago

> Why is this called a whitepaper, as this is more of a documentation and architecture overview of the cluster? That’s what a marketing white paper is and does. It’s not an academic paper.

danpalmer 3y ago
I was always taught that “whitepapers” were this sort of thing and were distinct from academic papers. However this seems to be industry or ecosystem specific because the cryptocurrency ecosystem uses “whitepaper” to mean their academic papers, or at least their approximation of them.
flakiness 3y ago
To be fair NVIDIA used to publish more detailed "white paper" for their GPUs ex. [1] and CPU textbooks like H&P [2] draws a lot of details from these. This less detailed "whitepaper" still has a scent of these old tradition. [1] https://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/nvidia-ampere-ga-102-gpu-architecture-whitepaper-v2.pdf https://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/nvidia-ampere-ga-102-gpu-... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Architecture-Quantitative-John-Hennessy/dp/012383872X https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Architecture-Quantitative-Jo...

callalex 3y ago

NVDA has spent too much time surrounded by cryptocurrency hacks that published “whitepapers” left and right with zero technical information or innovation. As they say, never get high on your own supply.