Huawei begins annual Connect 2023 Summit with wide discussion on computing and AI

On September 20, 2023, Sabrina Meng, Huawei’s Deputy Chairwoman, Rotating Chairwoman, and CFO began the Huawei Connect 2023 conference. She unveiled Huawei’s All Intelligence strategy. Meng described the company’s ongoing efforts to dive deep into foundational AI technologies and build a solid computing backbone for China – and another option for the world – to support a vast range of AI models and applications for all industries.

Huawei also released a reference architecture for driving intelligent transformation at this year’s event, as well as a number of related products and solutions. This reference architecture is included in the company’s new white paper, Accelerating Intelligent Transformation, which offers practical advice and references to help industries make the most of intelligence.

For the past two decades, Huawei has worked with the industry to drive information and communications technology forward, first with its All IP strategy to support informatization, and then with its All Cloud strategy to support digitalization. As artificial intelligence gains steam and its impact on industry continues to grow, Huawei’s All Intelligence strategy is designed to help all industries make the most of new strategic opportunities presented by AI.

Key to this strategy is providing the massive amounts of computing power needed to train foundation models for different industries. “Huawei is committed to building a solid computing backbone for China – and another option for the world,” said Meng in her keynote. “We will keep strengthening the synergy between hardware, software, chips, edge, devices, and cloud to provide fertile ground for a thriving ecosystem. Our end goal is to help meet the diverse AI computing needs of different industries.”

Meng also shared Huawei’s next steps. “Going forward, Huawei will dive into the product and tech domains where we excel, and work closely with customers, partners, developers, and other stakeholders to provide cutting-edge, easy-to-use industry solutions. By working together, we can help promote greater digital security and trustworthiness, and accelerate intelligence across all industries.”

Towards the end of her speech, Meng stressed, “Competence breeds confidence. And the future is one we build together.” To succeed in the intelligent future to come: “There’s strength in solidarity. And victory through grit.”

Meng was followed by David Wang, Huawei’s Executive Director of the Board, Chairman of the ICT Infrastructure Managing Board, and President of the Enterprise BG, who took the stage to announce the launch of Huawei’s new Atlas 900 SuperCluster. This new AI computing cluster, the latest offering in Huawei’s Ascend series of computing products, makes use of a brand-new architecture that’s optimized for training massive AI foundation models with over one trillion parameters. The Atlas 900 SuperCluster comes packed with Huawei’s state-of-the-art Xinghe Network CloudEngine XH16800 switch. With high-density 800GE ports, the SuperCluster’s two-layer switching network can connect up to 2,250 nodes per cluster – equivalent to 18,000 NPUs – without oversubscription.

All told the cluster’s innovative super node architecture greatly boosts its overall computing power and takes the speed and efficiency of foundation model training to an entirely new level.

In addition, Huawei has leveraged its strengths in computing, storage, network, and energy to systematically improve system reliability at the component, node, cluster, and service levels. System reliability is incredibly important for training massive foundation models, and this approach has effectively extended the cluster’s ability to support continuous model training from several days to a month or more.

“A new chapter of intelligent transformation is unfolding,” Wang said. “We now stand at the threshold of a new and intelligent world, with vast opportunities and challenges ahead of us. We need to work together, dig deep into industry-specific scenarios, and build a solid computing backbone to power countless new AI models and applications. Together, we can help all industries go intelligent, and help them do it faster.”

During his keynote, Wang launched nine new intelligent industry solutions based on Huawei’s intelligent transformation reference architecture. A joint effort between Huawei, its customers, and partners, these solutions are designed to meet the specific needs of different industries, including finance, government, manufacturing, electric power, and railways.

Wang also announced the release of a new white paper, Accelerating Intelligent Transformation. It’s a collection of case studies and best practices aimed at helping all industries hit the ground running as they move to embrace new forms of intelligence.

Huawei also partnered up with the China West Airport Group (CWAG) to develop a comprehensive intelligent transformation strategy. According to Lin Bin, CWAG’s Deputy General Manager, his company has incubated 35 intelligent solutions for security, operations, services, and other scenarios using Huawei’s high-performance computing power and open intelligent platforms, as well as advanced algorithms in the industry.

In particular, their intelligent ground handling solution issues predictions and alerts based on the real-time status of flights, passengers, and resources, helping the company more intelligently dispatch employees and schedule flights. This solution has improved ground handling efficiency by 20%, cutting turnaround times by 17%. Their intelligent solution for airport operations uses a flight planning optimization model to find the best fit between supply and demand and power AI-assisted operational commands.

(source – Huawei)