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Abstract
The NVIDIA A2 Tensor Core GPU provides entry-level inference with low power, a small footprint, and high performance for NVIDIA AI at the edge. Featuring a low-profile PCIe Gen4 card and a low 40-60W configurable thermal design power (TDP) capability, the A2 brings versatile inference acceleration to any server for deployment at scale.
This product guide provides essential presales information to understand the NVIDIA A2 GPU and its key features, specifications, and compatibility. This guide is intended for technical specialists, sales specialists, sales engineers, IT architects, and other IT professionals who want to learn more about the NVIDIA A2 GPU and consider its use in IT solutions.
Change History
Changes in the September 15, 2023 update:
- Added the Controlled status column to Table 1 - Part number information section
Introduction
The NVIDIA A2 Tensor Core GPU provides entry-level inference with low power, a small footprint, and high performance for NVIDIA AI at the edge. Featuring a low-profile PCIe Gen4 card and a low 40-60W configurable thermal design power (TDP) capability, the A2 brings versatile inference acceleration to any server for deployment at scale.
Did you know?
AI inference is deployed to make consumer lives more convenient through real-time experiences, and enables them to gain insights on trillions of end-point sensors and cameras. Compared to CPU-only servers (dual-socket Intel Xeon Gold 6330N), the servers built with NVIDIA A2 Tensor Core GPU offer up to 20X more inference performance, instantly upgrading any server to handle modern AI.
Part number information
The following table shows the part numbers for the NVIDIA A2 GPU.
The NVIDIA A2 GPU is not Controlled which means the GPU is unrestricted and is available in all markets.
The PCIe option part numbers includes the following:
- One NVIDIA A2 GPU with full-height (3U) adapter bracket attached
- Low profile bracket
- Documentation
GPUs without a CEC chip: The NVIDIA A2 GPU is offered without a CEC chip (look for "w/o CEC" in the name). The CEC is a secondary Hardware Root of Trust (RoT) module that provides an additional layer of security, which can be used by customers who have high regulatory requirements or high security standards. NVIDIA uses a multi-layered security model and hence the protection offered by the primary Root of Trust embedded in the GPU is expected to be sufficient for most customers. The CEC defeatured products still offer Secure Boot, Secure Firmware Update, Firmware Rollback Protection, and In-Band Firmware Update Disable. Specifically, without the CEC chip, the GPU does not support Key Revocation or Firmware Attestation. CEC and non-CEC GPUs of the same type of GPU can be mixed in field upgrades.
Features
The ThinkSystem NVIDIA A2 16GB PCIe Gen4 Passive GPU offers the following features:
- Third-Generation Tensor Cores: The third-generation Tensor Cores in A2 support integer math, down to INT4, and floating point math, up to FP32, to deliver high AI training and inference performance. The NVIDIA Ampere architecture also supports TF32 and NVIDIA’s automatic mixed precision (AMP) capabilities.
- Root Of Trust Security: Providing security in edge deployments and end-points is critical for enterprise business operations. A2 offers secure boot through trusted code authentication and hardened rollback protections to protect against malicious malware attacks.
- Second-Generation RT Cores: A2 includes dedicated RT Cores for ray tracing that enable groundbreaking technologies at breakthrough speed. With up to 2X the throughput over the previous generation and the ability to concurrently run ray tracing with either shading or denoising capabilities.
- Hardware Transcoding Performance: Exponential growth in video applications demand real-time scalable performance, requiring the latest in hardware encode and decode capabilities. A2 GPUs use dedicated hardware to fully accelerate video decoding and encoding for the most popular codecs, including H.265, H.264, VP9, and AV1 decode.
Technical specifications
The following table lists the specifications of the NVIDIA A2 PCIe GPU.
* With structural sparsity enabled
Server support
The following tables list the ThinkSystem servers that are compatible.
Operating system support
The following table lists the supported operating systems:
Tip: These tables are automatically generated based on data from Lenovo ServerProven.
1 Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS/Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
1 The OS is not supported with EPYC 7003 processors.
2 ISG will not sell/preload this OS, but compatibility and cert only.
NVIDIA GPU software
This section lists the NVIDIA software that is available from Lenovo.
NVIDIA vGPU Software (vApps, vPC, RTX vWS)
Lenovo offers the following virtualization software for NVIDIA GPUs:
- Virtual Applications (vApps)
For organizations deploying Citrix XenApp, VMware Horizon RDSH or other RDSH solutions. Designed to deliver PC Windows applications at full performance. NVIDIA Virtual Applications allows users to access any Windows application at full performance on any device, anywhere. This edition is suited for users who would like to virtualize applications using XenApp or other RDSH solutions. Windows Server hosted RDSH desktops are also supported by vApps.
- Virtual PC (vPC)
This product is ideal for users who want a virtual desktop but need great user experience leveraging PC Windows® applications, browsers and high-definition video. NVIDIA Virtual PC delivers a native experience to users in a virtual environment, allowing them to run all their PC applications at full performance.
- NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (RTX vWS)
NVIDIA RTX vWS is the only virtual workstation that supports NVIDIA RTX technology, bringing advanced features like ray tracing, AI-denoising, and Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) to a virtual environment. Supporting the latest generation of NVIDIA GPUs unlocks the best performance possible, so designers and engineers can create their best work faster. IT can virtualize any application from the data center with an experience that is indistinguishable from a physical workstation — enabling workstation performance from any device.
The following license types are offered:
- Perpetual license
A non-expiring, permanent software license that can be used on a perpetual basis without the need to renew. For each perpetual license, customers are also required to purchase a 5-year SUMS support contract. Without this contract, the perpetual license cannot be ordered.
- Annual subscription
A software license that is active for a fixed period as defined by the terms of the subscription license, typically yearly. The subscription includes Support, Upgrade and Maintenance (SUMS) for the duration of the license term.
- Concurrent User (CCU)
A method of counting licenses based on active user VMs. If the VM is active and the NVIDIA vGPU software is running, then this counts as one CCU. A vGPU CCU is independent of the connection to the VM.
The following table lists the ordering part numbers and feature codes.
NVIDIA Omniverse Software (OVE)
NVIDIA Omniverse™ Enterprise is an end-to-end collaboration and simulation platform that fundamentally transforms complex design workflows, creating a more harmonious environment for creative teams.
NVIDIA and Lenovo offer a robust, scalable solution for deploying Omniverse Enterprise, accommodating a wide range of professional needs. This document details the critical components, deployment options, and support available, ensuring an efficient and effective Omniverse experience.
Deployment options cater to varying team sizes and workloads. Using Lenovo NVIDIA-Certified Systems™ and Lenovo OVX nodes which are meticulously designed to manage scale and complexity, ensures optimal performance for Omniverse tasks.
Deployment options include:
- Workstations: NVIDIA-Certified Workstations with RTX 6000 Ada GPUs for desktop environments.
- Data Center Solutions: Deployment with Lenovo OVX nodes or NVIDIA-Certified Servers equipped with L40, L40S or A40 GPUs for centralized, high-capacity needs.
NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise includes the following components and features:
- Platform Components: Kit, Connect, Nucleus, Simulation, RTX Renderer.
- Foundation Applications: USD Composer, USD Presenter.
- Omniverse Extensions: Connect Sample & SDK.
- Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
- Nucleus Configuration: Workstation, Enterprise Nucleus Server (supports up to 8 editors per scene); Self-Service Public Cloud Hosting using Containers.
- Omniverse Farm: Supports batch workloads up to 8 GPUs.
- Enterprise Services: Authentication (SSO/SSL), Navigator Microservice, Large File Transfer, User Accounts SAML/Account Directory.
- User Interface: Workstation & IT Managed Launcher.
- Support: NVIDIA Enterprise Support.
- Deployment Scenarios: Desktop to Data Center: Workstation deployment for building and designing, with options for physical or virtual desktops. For batch tasks, rendering, and SDG workloads that require headless compute, Lenovo OVX nodes are recommended.
The following part numbers are for a subscription license which is active for a fixed period as noted in the description. The license is for a named user which means the license is for named authorized users who may not re-assign or share the license with any other person.
NVIDIA AI Enterprise Software
Lenovo offers the NVIDIA AI Enterprise (NVAIE) cloud-native enterprise software. NVIDIA AI Enterprise is an end-to-end, cloud-native suite of AI and data analytics software, optimized, certified, and supported by NVIDIA to run on VMware vSphere and bare-metal with NVIDIA-Certified Systems™. It includes key enabling technologies from NVIDIA for rapid deployment, management, and scaling of AI workloads in the modern hybrid cloud.
NVIDIA AI Enterprise is licensed on a per-GPU basis. NVIDIA AI Enterprise products can be purchased as either a perpetual license with support services, or as an annual or multi-year subscription.
- The perpetual license provides the right to use the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software indefinitely, with no expiration. NVIDIA AI Enterprise with perpetual licenses must be purchased in conjunction with one-year, three-year, or five-year support services. A one-year support service is also available for renewals.
- The subscription offerings are an affordable option to allow IT departments to better manage the flexibility of license volumes. NVIDIA AI Enterprise software products with subscription includes support services for the duration of the software’s subscription license
The features of NVIDIA AI Enterprise Software are listed in the following table.
Note: Maximum 10 concurrent VMs per product license
The following table lists the ordering part numbers and feature codes.
Find more information in the NVIDIA AI Enterprise Sizing Guide.
NVIDIA HPC Compiler Software
Regulatory approvals
The NVIDIA A2 GPU has the following regulatory approvals:
- RCM
- BSMI
- CE
- FCC
- ICES
- KCC
- cUL, UL
- VCCI
Operating environment
The NVIDIA A2 GPU has the following operating characteristics:
- Ambient temperature
- Operational: 0°C to 50°C (-5°C to 55°C for short term*)
- Storage: -40°C to 75°C
- Relative humidity:
- Operational: 5-85% (5-93% short term*)
- Storage: 5-95%
* A period not more than 96 hours consecutive, not to exceed 15 days per year.
Warranty
One year limited warranty. When installed in a Lenovo server, the GPU assumes the server’s base warranty and any warranty upgrades.
Related publications
For more information, refer to these documents:
- ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile GPU Summary:
https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/lp0768-thinksystem-thinkagile-gpu-summary - ServerProven compatibility:
https://serverproven.lenovo.com/ - NVIDIA A2 product page:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/products/a2/ - NVIDIA Ampere Architecture page
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/ampere-architecture/
Trademarks
Lenovo and the Lenovo logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both. A current list of Lenovo trademarks is available on the Web at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/legal/copytrade/.
The following terms are trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both:
Lenovo®
ServerProven®
ThinkAgile®
ThinkSystem®
The following terms are trademarks of other companies:
AMD is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Intel® and Xeon® are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.
Linux® is the trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.
Microsoft®, Windows Server®, and Windows® are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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Full Change History
Changes in the September 15, 2023 update:
- Added the Controlled status column to Table 1 - Part number information section
First published: September 10, 2023
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