Nvidia launches desktop AI computer
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Nvidia is moving ever further into the AI hardware business with the first AI desktop machine.
The DIGITS desktop AI ‘supercomputer’ is built around a new chip, the GB10. This combines the Blackwell GPU with a Grace CPU with 20 ARM cores in a single package and connected by the NVLink-C2C chip-to-chip interconnect.
With 128GB of DDR5 unified memory, this can handle AI frameworks with up to 200bn parameters locally, with a performance of 1petaFLOP< although that is for the smaller 4bit INT4 format. There is support for up to 4Tbytes of local storage.
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Some of the AI workloads will include model experimentation, fine tuning, inference for evaluation or even running local models as well as robotics and computer vision,” said Allen Bourgoyne, director of product marketing for enterprise platforms at Nvidia.
Two DIGIT desktops can be connected together via a ConnectX link, and there is also WiFi and USB connectivity for the desktop environment.
The desktop runs Ubuntu Linux with the DGX operating system on top with a preconfigured AI stack. It will also be able to run the AI frameworks in the Nvidia NIMS microservices that will be available under a permissive license for researchers and developers. These had previously only been available as part of an enterprise license.
The company is at pains to say this is not a desktop PC for productivity applications or gaming, where it has also launched a range of RTX graphics cards based on the Blackwell B202 chip. “Today it is a Linux system as is designed as a supercomputer on the desk,” said Bourgoyne.
Pricing and availability will be announced by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the CES 2025 show in Las Vegas this week. The desktop unit will be available for $3000 from May, he said.
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