Monash Uni selects technology suppliers for supercomputer

Monash University is enlisting Nvidia, Dell and CDC Data Centres to build its MAVERIC artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer announced back in June.

Nvidia GB200 NVL72
NVIDIA

MAVERIC is an acronym that stands for Monash AdVanced Environment for Research and Intelligent Computing.

Nvidia's GB200 NVL72 platform will underpin MAVERIC.

It features 36 Arm Neoverse V2 architecture Grace central processors, and 72 Blackwell graphics cards that are interconnected with Nvidia's NVLink fabric that provides up to 130 terabytes of bandwidth, with low latency.

Dell meanwhile will integrate the Nvidia GB200 NVL72 in the company's integrated rack scalable systems (IRSS) such as the IR7000 with a PowerEdge XE9712 server. 

MAVERIC will be housed at CDC Data Centres in Brooklyn, 10km west of Melbourne's CBD.

The $60 million AI supercomputer will be used for research into health such as early detection of cancer, managing chronic disease treatments, and identifying new medicines.

Another type of research that the university wants to use MAVERIC for is climate research, with the supercomputer to analyse large and complex data sets related to air quality, the Antarctic, heat impact on populations and how climate change worsens the spread of infectious diseases.

Monash vice-chancellor professor Sharon Pickering said the university wants its academics, students and research partners to be at the forefront of shaping the future of AI, by how it's applied and through unlocking new possibilities and innovations.

"Our focus is on solving real problems and putting AI to work in a meaningful way – from breakthroughs in cancer detection, to redefining what’s possible in preserving the health of our planet for future generations,” Pickering said.

Construction of the supercomputer begins this year, with the machine to be activated early 2026.