Kinetica now Uses GPUs for Advanced In-Database Analytics

Thursday, February 09, 2017 Unknown 0 Comments Category : ,




GPU-accelerated databases aren't new, and they're not all that popular, but that will likely change over time. Here are some of Kinetica's latest improvements and why that matters to big pharma company GSK.
Kinetica, the in-memory, GPU-accelerated database, now enables in-database analytics via user-defined functions (UDFs). The capability makes the parallel processing power of graphics processing units accessible to custom analytics functions deployed within Kinetica. With the enhancements, machine learning and AI libraries such as TensorFlor, BiDMach, Caffe, and Torch can run in-database alongside of and converged with BI workloads.
Business analysts and developers can leverage Kinetica's APIs to leverage third-party code, use GPUs without having to move data, and execute and manage customizations for custom libraries. They can also use native API bindings in C/C++ and Java, as well as use arbitrary binaries to receive table data, do arbitrary data computations, and save output to a global table in a distributed manner.
Credit: Pixabay
Credit: Pixabay
Kinetica sits between the system of record such as an Oracle or SQL database and applications, storing tens and even hundreds of terabytes in-memory and on disk to deliver faster answers to pressing questions.
Kinetica now also enables real-time data discovery with its new "Reveal" data exploration framework. With it, business analysts can visualize and interact with billions of data elements instantly without knowing SQL. It uses a RESTful end point as the native connection to make data easier to get in and out.
"It's not just ODBC and JDBC only like most databases. You have a host of APIs that help reduce the middle layer," said Eric Mizell, VP, Global Solution Engineering at Kinetica, in an interview, where he discussed the company's introduction today of an integrated BI/AI/ML platform.
VRAM Boost Mode is another enhancement. With it, users can prioritize their data tables and force datasets to remain in a very fast cluster-wide GPU Video Ram (VRAM) for faster query performance.
GSK Uses Kinetica for Simulation
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) uses Kinetica to accelerate simulations of chemical reactions.
"What you want to do is distribute that over a large number of nodes and let each node [process] its piece of the simulation. By doing the subdivision, you can do simulation faster," said Mark Ramsey, chief data officer at GSK, who invented and patented a similar idea for IBM around 1998.

RELATED POSTS

0 comments