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Yes, and D1 is 7nm while TSMC is sampling 3nm to Apple, while NVidia Hopper will be delivered at 4nm. It takes so much time to build that the D1 chip is seemin
by dragontamer 4y ago
Yes, and D1 is 7nm while TSMC is sampling 3nm to Apple, while NVidia Hopper will be delivered at 4nm.
It takes so much time to build that the D1 chip is seemingly going to be obsolete before the supercomputer is even built. Obviously, the D2 needs to be announced soon to remain competitive. But another run of chips is even a few hundred-million bucks down the drain again.
At some point, you have to wonder if the custom chip was worth it at all. A run on a high-end process like 7nm isn't cheap at all, and being forced to make another run at 5nm or 4nm or 3nm as technology improves only shows how difficult the hardware business is.
Will Tesla be able to deliver its chips internally before later NVidia chips (like Hopper) get delivered? Or whatever other AI companies are making chips?
- panick21_ 4y agoThose are all fair points. Not paying large margin to Nvidia might also matters on the economics. Sometimes the first version of something isn't strictly speaking worth it but its still important for the company and what it wants to do. Its certainty risky, but Tesla has just decided that they are vertical integration is important for them. So far this strategy is working for them but any individual project can of course not work.