Still, if this Chinese TPU design is even close to what they claim, it should be quite powerful. The A100 was cutting-edge hardware five years ago , although even 1.5 times that performance would still put Ghana well behind the Hopper designs from 2022, and far, far behind the latest Blackwell Ultra hardware .
But for a Chinese market that is still smuggling in these older GPUs? That might be plenty.
All of this comes at an intriguing time for the AI chip industry. Although Nvidia has been a dominant force and the face of the industry for the past year, Google's recent announcement to start renting and then selling its own TPU silicon to Meta has opened up the possibility, and the very idea, of direct competition. It's a small-fry deal, despite being worth billions, but as alternatives appear in the West, so they do in the East as China pushes for more domestic chip production and support, via energy subsidy carrots , and mandated quota sticks.
GPUs like those developed by Nvidia and, to a far lesser extent, AMD, will likely remain the most versatile methods for training AI for some time to come, but ASICs like Google's TPUs, and perhaps even those from firms like this, could offer an intriguing alternative for companies looking to break free from the Nvidia near-monopoly.
Or just to get access to hardware. Memory prices, silicon shortages, and trade barriers can all get in the way of even accessing the GPUs your company needs. In their absence, unproven ASICs may be a viable alternative.
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Jon Martindale Freelance Writer Jon Martindale is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. For the past 20 years, he's been writing about PC components, emerging technologies, and the latest software advances. His deep and broad journalistic experience gives him unique insights into the most exciting technology trends of today and tomorrow.
IBM296 Good development for China… But it's still going to be atleast till 2030 before their chips are able to compete on par with Nvidia and AMD. Reply
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- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/chinese-startup-founded-by-google-engineer-claims-to-have-developed-its-own-tpu-reportedly-1-5-times-faster-than-nvidias-a100-gpu-from-2020-42-percent-more-efficient#main
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