VP: Iran to Launch GPU Farm by October

“The necessary equipment has been prepared in the field of artificial intelligence infrastructure and we are trying to launch all GPUs in early October,” Afshin said.

“The infrastructure in the field of artificial intelligence, including the artificial intelligence platform and the artificial intelligence assistant, is being pursued seriously and vigorously, and very positive events have occurred in this field over the past year,” he underlined.

“We have also made progress in terms of scientific publications compared to last year. Based on the Nature index, Iran’s rank has improved from 33rd in the world to 30th, which was achieved through the efforts of professors, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. Our focus is on improving the quality of articles rather than simply increasing their quantity,” Afshin noted.

In relevant remarks in February, an assistant to the Iranian Vice-President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy announced the country’s plan to launch three GPU farms.

“The existence of a GPU farm is one of the important indicators in the area of artificial intelligence technology, and we are launching a fast processing farm or the first GPU data center,” Mojtaba Alizadeh said.

Noting that the first GPU farm will be launched in May at one of the country's universities, he said, "Our goal is to show the world that Iran is a country that is progressing in the field of artificial intelligence."

“We will launch three GPU farms in Tehran, Kish Island, and other provinces by June and one of the most equipped GPU farms is on Kish Island which will be dedicated to the oil industry,” Alizadeh said.

A GPU is a specialized electronic circuit initially designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal computers, workstations, and game consoles. After their initial design, GPUs were found to be useful for non-graphic calculations involving embarrassingly parallel problems due to their parallel structure.

GPUs ability to perform vast numbers of calculations rapidly has led to their adoption in diverse fields including artificial intelligence (AI) where it excels at handling data-intensive and computationally demanding tasks.

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