Artificial intelligence is transforming industries, and NVIDIA’s latest innovation, Project DIGITS, aims to empower researchers, developers, and students by bringing AI supercomputing power to their desks. Introduced at CES 2025, this compact yet highly powerful mini-PC merges portability with the ability to handle demanding AI workloads, redefining accessibility to AI technology.
At the heart of Project DIGITS is the NVIDIA GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, a groundbreaking system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed to deliver a petaflop of AI performance—equivalent to approximately 1,000 times the power of high-end laptops. The GB10 integrates a NVIDIA Blackwell GPU with cutting-edge CUDA® cores and Tensor Cores, alongside a Grace CPU featuring 20 power-efficient Arm architecture cores. These components are interconnected via NVIDIA’s NVLink®-C2C for lightning-fast data transfer.
The device boasts 128GB of unified memory and 4TB of NVMe storage, enabling users to train and run large-scale AI models, such as those powering generative tools like ChatGPT. For even more demanding tasks, two units can be linked to handle models with up to 405 billion parameters.
Performance Meets Portability
Although the final design has yet to be unveiled, Project DIGITS is described as being small enough to fit on a desk or in a bag. This portability, combined with its ability to run complex AI models locally, allows developers to work independently of large-scale data centers or cloud-based systems. This is particularly beneficial for fields such as robotics, autonomous systems, and computer vision, where rapid prototyping and testing are crucial.
According to NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, the device democratizes access to cutting-edge AI capabilities:
“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.”
Supercomputing power is quantified in floating point operations per second (FLOPS). The world’s top supercomputers achieve slightly over 1,000 petaFLOPS (or 1 quintillion FLOPS), making them about a million times more powerful than typical laptops, according to IBM.
In comparison, Project DIGITS delivers 1 petaFLOPS of performance. While it doesn’t rival the capabilities of the most advanced supercomputers, it far outperforms most desktop PCs and high-end laptops, all within a significantly smaller and more compact form factor.
Project DIGITS not only bridges the gap between desktop computing and cloud-based AI development but also does so with remarkable efficiency. It achieves its performance using a standard power outlet, making it an environmentally conscious solution. For an entry price of $3,000, this compact supercomputer puts enterprise-grade AI capabilities within reach of a much broader audience.
Slated for release in May 2025, Project DIGITS is set to transform how AI research and development are conducted, offering unmatched performance in a portable and affordable package.
