Scaling up ViT Image Classification on Gaudi2 HPUs

Jacob Solawetz and Trevor Lynn's blog post, published on September 14, 2023, explores the use of Intel's Gaudi2 hardware to train large-scale image transformers efficiently. The Gaudi2 HPUs, developed by Intel's Habana Labs, are presented as powerful alternatives to NVIDIA's A100 GPUs for deep learning tasks, particularly in scaling Vision Transformer (ViT) models for image classification. The post provides a detailed tutorial on configuring a Gaudi2 machine on Intel's Developer Cloud, including setting up SynapseAI software, utilizing PyTorch bindings, and running multi-HPU training routines. It showcases the training process using both Imagenette, a smaller version of ImageNet, and a custom dataset from Roboflow's platform, highlighting the Gaudi2's capability in handling large workloads effectively. By demonstrating the practical application of Gaudi2 in transforming AI training processes, the authors aim to inspire the AI community to leverage this hardware for enhanced performance in visual AI projects.