The world’s largest computer chip will enable AI models to process 4 billion parameters at once, opening the door to a new scale of AI computing. The capacity of the new chip compares to about a million per chip typical of processors today. It’s made by Cerebras, a California start-up.
- Cerebras calls their new chip the WSE, which stands for ‘wafer scale engine.’
- FORBES calls it ‘a supercomputer-on-a-chip.’
- The breakthrough is cutting out the interconnections. Chips often are ganged together to deliver faster outputs in their aggregate, but each connection involves time to trade results. Putting, say, 10 chips together does not offer 10x performance but some factor less.
- BBC NEWS says the company expects processing time for some complex operations can drop ‘from months to minutes.’
- ZDNET says WSE will enable new kinds of neural networks.
- EE|Times reports the WSE offers similar performance to an assembly of 1,000 chips by its closest competitor ‘while requiring just 2-3% of its space and power.’
- WIRED gives an example of $350,000 in computing time for a single piece of language software. Dropping computing time can save costs, which can be in the millions when working with large AI models. The price for the WSE and its housing has not been reported.
“When limitations of the hardware are keeping us from exploring fertile areas, that’s very much what we sought to change… Hardware should be a platform on which your thinking can take shape.”
ANDREW FELDMAN in ZDNET
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MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW | August 20, 2019 | by Martin Giles - Cerebras Unveils AI Supercomputer-On-A-Chip
FORBES | August 19, 2019 | by Karl Freund - To Power AI, This Start-up Built a Really, Really Big Chip
WIRED | August 19, 2019 |by Tom Simonite - Startup Spins Whole Wafer for AI | EE|TIMES | August 19, 2019 | by Rick Merritt
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NEW YORK TIMES | August 19. 2019 | by Cade Metz - Cerebras reveals world’s ‘largest computer chip’ for AI tasks
BBC NEWS | August 19, 2019 - The five technical challenges Cerebras overcame in building the first trillion transistor chip
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