NVIDIA NCCL 2.28 Enhances AI Workflows by Merging Communication and Computation
Introduction to NVIDIA NCCL 2.28 in AI Applications The NVIDIA Collective Communications Library (NCCL) is a key tool in artificial intelligence for managing data exchange across multiple GPUs and nodes. Its latest version, NCCL 2.28, introduces new features that blend communication and computation to improve efficiency. This article explores how these improvements impact AI workloads. Understanding Communication-Compute Fusion Communication-compute fusion means integrating data transfer operations directly with GPU calculations. Traditionally, these processes happen separately, causing delays and underused GPU power. NCCL 2.28 enables GPUs to start network communication themselves, reducing wait times and increasing throughput. GPU-Initiated Networking Explained With GPU-initiated networking, the GPU can independently manage data sending and receiving without needing the CPU for control. This reduces latency and frees CPU resources, which is important for AI systems running...