Advancing Ansys Workloads with NVIDIA Grace and NVIDIA Grace Hopper

Accelerated computing is enabling giant leaps in performance and energy efficiency compared to traditional CPU computing. Delivering these advancements requires…

Ian Pegler
9 min readintermediate
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Overview

The article discusses how NVIDIA Grace and Grace Hopper architectures enhance Ansys workloads, particularly in automotive crash analysis and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). It highlights the performance and energy efficiency improvements these technologies bring to data centers, emphasizing their suitability for high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

What You'll Learn

1

How to leverage NVIDIA Grace CPU for automotive crash analysis using Ansys LS-DYNA

2

Why NVIDIA Grace Hopper is beneficial for running Ansys Fluent simulations

3

How to optimize energy efficiency in HPC environments with NVIDIA technologies

Prerequisites & Requirements

  • Understanding of high-performance computing concepts
  • Familiarity with Ansys software tools like LS-DYNA and Fluent(optional)

Key Questions Answered

What performance improvements does NVIDIA Grace CPU offer for Ansys LS-DYNA?
The NVIDIA Grace CPU provides significant performance improvements for Ansys LS-DYNA simulations, achieving over 2x performance per watt compared to x86 alternatives. This efficiency allows for faster crash analysis in automotive applications, which is critical for meeting safety standards while minimizing energy consumption.
How does NVIDIA Grace Hopper enhance Ansys Fluent simulations?
NVIDIA Grace Hopper enables Ansys Fluent simulations to run significantly faster, completing a 2.4-billion cell automotive simulation in just over 6 hours, which would take nearly a month on 2,048 x86 CPU cores. This speedup is due to the high bandwidth and memory coherency provided by the Grace Hopper architecture.
What are the energy efficiency benefits of using NVIDIA Grace CPU?
The NVIDIA Grace CPU demonstrates superior energy efficiency, allowing for reduced power consumption while maintaining high performance. In power-capped data centers, this translates to more compute capabilities within the same power budget, making it an ideal choice for energy-sensitive applications.

Key Statistics & Figures

Bisection bandwidth of NVIDIA Grace CPU
3.2 TB/s
This bandwidth is double that of traditional CPUs, enhancing data flow between CPU cores and memory.
Energy efficiency improvement of NVIDIA Grace CPU
over 2x performance/watt
This improvement is critical for HPC applications where power costs are significant.
Speedup of Ansys Fluent on Grace Hopper
110x faster
This speedup was observed when running a 2.4-billion cell simulation compared to using 2,048 x86 CPU cores.

Technologies & Tools

Hardware
Nvidia Grace CPU
Used for automotive crash analysis and other high-performance computing tasks.
Hardware
Nvidia Grace Hopper
Optimized for running Ansys Fluent simulations efficiently.
Networking
Nvidia Quantum Infiniband
Provides high bandwidth and low latency for multi-node simulations.
Software
Ansys Ls-dyna
Used for crash analysis simulations.
Software
Ansys Fluent
Used for computational fluid dynamics simulations.

Key Actionable Insights

1
Adopting NVIDIA Grace CPU can lead to substantial cost savings in automotive crash analysis workloads.
With many OEMs running thousands of CPU cores for crash analysis, transitioning to Grace CPUs can reduce energy consumption and operational costs significantly.
2
Utilizing NVIDIA Grace Hopper for CFD simulations can drastically reduce computation time.
The ability to complete complex simulations in a fraction of the time allows engineers to iterate designs faster, which is crucial in competitive industries like automotive.
3
Implementing NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand can enhance data transfer speeds and reduce latency in multi-node simulations.
This is particularly beneficial for applications requiring high bandwidth and low latency, such as computational fluid dynamics and crash simulations.

Common Pitfalls

1
Overlooking the importance of energy efficiency in HPC environments can lead to increased operational costs.
Many organizations focus solely on performance metrics, neglecting how power consumption impacts overall costs. By considering energy efficiency, organizations can optimize their HPC setups for better sustainability and cost-effectiveness.

Related Concepts

High-performance Computing (hpc)
Computational Fluid Dynamics (cfd)
Computer-aided Engineering (cae)