3 ms·
The 500kW almost certainly includes the cooling losses. The chips alone theoretically consume power roughly according to the Landauer-Von Neumann limit, which w
by eig 2y ago
The 500kW almost certainly includes the cooling losses. The chips alone theoretically consume power roughly according to the Landauer-Von Neumann limit, which would be less than microwatts for the shoebox they describe. In real life it’ll be more due to the switching flux and EM radiation generated but I think still much less than a watt. Liquid helium cooling and pumping through the chip is super inefficient which is where 99% of the energy is going.
- karma_pharmer 2y agoFrom the article: > there is a glass bridge to a warmer area, a balmy 77 K that hosts the DRAM. The DRAM technology is not superconducting, There is a lot of not-superconducting circuitry in that shoebox; without it you wouldn't have enough memory to do anything that qualifies as "AI". The reasonable conclusion is that the power figure covers only the components they have described. Note that the article fails to mention the word "cryocooler" even once. I know of other research groups (not IMEC) who are pretty shameless about excluding cryocooler power and cost from all of their press-release/popsci materials. It's considered acceptable in this field.