# Distributed Training using PopDist Example PopDist (Poplar Distributed Configuration) provides a set of APIs which can be used to write a distributed application. The application can then be launched on multiple instances using PopRun. This example contains a PopTorch CNN with PopDist support, which can be launched on multiple instances using a PopRun command line. You can learn more about PopDist and PopRun in the [PopDist and PopRun User Guide](https://docs.graphcore.ai/projects/poprun-user-guide/en/latest/). ## File structure * `popdist_training.py` Example training script with PopDist support. * `tests` Integration tests for this example. * `README.md` This file. ## How to use this example 1. Prepare the PopTorch environment. Install the Poplar SDK following the [Getting Started guide](https://docs.graphcore.ai/en/latest/getting-started.html) for your IPU system. Make sure to source the `enable.sh` scripts for Poplar and PopART and activate a Python virtualenv with PopTorch installed. 2. Install additional Python packages specified in requirements.txt ```:bash python -m pip install -U pip python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt ``` 3. Launch the script using PopRun. The number of instances and replicas are provided as command-line arguments Example: ``` poprun --num-instances=2 --num-replicas=4 python3 popdist_training.py --epochs=10 ```