Composable infrastructure firm Liqid has created a cost-effective and scalable solution for organizations looking to deploy high-performance inference capabilities in their data centers.
Unveiled at Dell Technologies World 2024, the UltraStack 30 crams a whopping thirty Nvidia L40S GPUs into a single Dell PowerEdge R760 server.
Liqid previously released a technical whitepaper for its UltraStack server at Nvidia GTC 2024 and at that time it had only managed to jam up to 20 Nvidia L40S into a PowerEdge server, so that's quite a leap in a short amount of time.
AMD and Intel support coming
Nvidia L40S GPUs have fewer cores and are generally less powerful than Nvidia’s H100 and A100 accelerators, as well as the newer Blackwell GB200 and B200 systems. However, they are well-suited for a variety of high-performance tasks, including AI, data analytics, and 3D rendering. This makes them a versatile choice for modern data centers and professional workloads, and they are cheaper too. L40S typically cost $7,000 to $8,000, compared to H100s which can go for $25,000 to $30,000.
The UltraStack 30 offers enhanced enterprise-level GPU infrastructure capabilities and builds on previous solutions, with improvements in operations per second and total cost of ownership compared to similar GPU density solutions. It also boasts an energy efficient design capable of delivering high-performance while reducing power consumption and operational costs.
This is just the start, and the company has big plans for the UltraStack 30. Sumit Puri, Liqid co-founder and chief strategy officer, noted, “As we move forward, we recognize that optimal memory bandwidth will be crucial for maximizing performance. This is why composableCXL (Compute Express Link) is on the horizon at Liqid, promising to further enhance our capabilities in delivering high-performance, low-latency solutions.”
Blocks & Files adds, “Our understanding is that Liqid can support GPUs and other accelerators from suppliers such as AMD and Intel. It is also aware of the possibility of marketing its SmartStack and UltraStack technologies to MSPs that wish to supply GPUs for rent.”
