Department of Energy will buy an Nvidia-AMD powered supercomputer because Intel is months late on delivery

Source:

The U.S. Department of Energy is nearing a deal to purchase a supercomputer made with chips from Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc as a key lab waits for a larger supercomputer from Intel Corp that has been delayed for months, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Nvidia and AMD machine, to be called Polaris, will not be a replacement for the Intel-based Aurora machine slated for the Argonne National Lab near Chicago, which was poised to be the nation’s fastest computer when announced in 2019.

Instead, Polaris, which will come online this year, will be a test machine for Argonne to start readying its software for the Intel machine, the people familiar with the matter said.

A more technical breakdown can be found from the DOE’s lab’s website.

To be clear, the Intel deal is merely delayed, but not canceled. How does this change the narrative of Nvda/AMD versus Intel in the high-end server and super computer space? Are these kind of delays very common? I.E It’s not a big deal.

Or did Intel just messed up a very visible and prestigious deal that will accelerate nvda/amd’s surge to capture Intel market share?

edited to add Tom’s Hardware also interpreted the DOE’s purchase of the Nvidia-AMD machine as being caused by Intel’s delay.

h/t r2002