Nvidia unveils its first desktop computer

Nvidia, a company that rose to prominence for producing graphics cards used for gaming and then for fuelling the AI storm in 2024, has announced its first desktop computer.

The personal AI supercomputer, Project DIGITS, is designed for AI researchers, data scientists, and students who intend to run large AI models on their systems.

Project DIGITS allows for advanced computing powered by the Nvidia GB10 Grace Blackwell super chip, offering users a petaflop of AI computing performance.

This will allow for the prototyping and fine-tuning of these models, as users can develop and run inferences on models on their desktops.

“AI will be mainstream in every application for every industry. With Project DIGITS, the Grace Blackwell Superchip comes to millions of developers,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said.

“Placing an AI supercomputer on the desks of every data scientist, AI researcher, and student empowers them to engage and shape the age of AI.”

The GB10 super chip is based on the Grace Blackwell architecture, which has been highly demanded by AI data centre operators such as Facebook and WhatsApp owner Meta Platforms.

It features an Nvidia Blackwell GPU with fifteenth-generation Tensor cores connected via NVLink chip-to-chip interconnect to a high-performance Nvidia Grace CPU fitted with 20 power-efficient cores manufactured using Arm architecture.

The system will run a customised version of Ubuntu Linux called NVIDIA DGX OS.

It boasts 128 gigabytes of unified, coherent memory and up to 4 terabytes of NVMe storage.

This will allow users to run up to 200-billion-parameter large language models.

Project DIGITS computers can also be linked to run up to 405-billion-parameter models.

Nvidia said users can develop models on the Project DIGITS system and then scale them on cloud or data centre infrastructure using the same Grace Blackwell architecture and the Nvidia AI Enterprise software platform.

Project DIGITS will be available starting in May for $3,000 (R56,300, excl. VAT and duties).