3 ms·

Tenstorrent won't be many months behind them, with true 2020s Apple / Intel / AMD performance levels. An original November 2020 M1 Mini (4P+4E 3.4 GHz) is stil

Tenstorrent won't be many months behind them, with true 2020s Apple / Intel / AMD performance levels. An original November 2020 M1 Mini (4P+4E 3.4 GHz) is still my main computer to sit in front of, and I have zero plans to change that right now. You'll be able to buy RISC-V at that level sometime next year.

musicale 1y ago
M1-class performance/power efficiency/cost would be impressive. I guess we'll see when/if it actually happens.
topspin 1y ago
> You'll be able to buy RISC-V at that level sometime next year. Will you? What exactly are Tenstorrent's plans for Ascalon? They are chasing the AI market, and I haven't seen any clear indication that they intend to sell their RISC-V CPUs as unbundled SKUs, or on "main computer" PCBs (ATX/mATX/ITX/etc.) I'm not sure they even care about that market. I hope they'll do this, but that's all I have right now. If you know something in particular, please share. If I could buy a M1 or better class Ascalon desktop system I'd be happy to pay an Apple-esq premium, and I believe many others would as well.
- snvzz 1y ago
  AIUI we know of one Ascalon licensee, LG. The known intent of LG is as main processor on its smart TVs.
- brucehoult 1y ago
  Tenstorrent have clearly said, I think in a presentation at a recent RISC-V Summit, that they want to see wide distribution of Ascalon to as many users and developers as possible, including laptops, to help kick-start the mainstream RISC-V ecosystem. Not just expensive servers, unlike some of the other high performance CPUs coming soon.
  - topspin 1y ago
    This might be what you have in mind, or similar[1]: RISC-V Taipei Day May 21, 2025. There are some hard numbers on Ascalon performance in there, anyhow. One figure from that: "36 SPECINT2K17 Rate" for the "8 core Athena Chiplet." That is on par[2] with a Intel Core i5-9600K (circa 2018 CPU.) That's enough for useful workloads. I'm actually still using one for Linux work on a daily basis. That's about what I would expect: it's in the ballpark of plausibility, given the givens. It's not reasonable to expect parity with Zen 5 or whatever. They'll need some years yet to ramp up their designs. I excited about Tenstorrent. Keller as the boss: one can hope for great things. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h61k4wOOzZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h61k4wOOzZU [2] https://www.spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2019q1/cpu2017-20190121-10802.html https://www.spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2019q1/cpu2017-20190...

musicale 1y ago

M1-class performance/power efficiency/cost would be impressive. I guess we'll see when/if it actually happens.

topspin 1y ago

> You'll be able to buy RISC-V at that level sometime next year. Will you? What exactly are Tenstorrent's plans for Ascalon? They are chasing the AI market, and I haven't seen any clear indication that they intend to sell their RISC-V CPUs as unbundled SKUs, or on "main computer" PCBs (ATX/mATX/ITX/etc.) I'm not sure they even care about that market. I hope they'll do this, but that's all I have right now. If you know something in particular, please share. If I could buy a M1 or better class Ascalon desktop system I'd be happy to pay an Apple-esq premium, and I believe many others would as well.

snvzz 1y ago
AIUI we know of one Ascalon licensee, LG. The known intent of LG is as main processor on its smart TVs.
brucehoult 1y ago
Tenstorrent have clearly said, I think in a presentation at a recent RISC-V Summit, that they want to see wide distribution of Ascalon to as many users and developers as possible, including laptops, to help kick-start the mainstream RISC-V ecosystem. Not just expensive servers, unlike some of the other high performance CPUs coming soon.
- topspin 1y ago
  This might be what you have in mind, or similar[1]: RISC-V Taipei Day May 21, 2025. There are some hard numbers on Ascalon performance in there, anyhow. One figure from that: "36 SPECINT2K17 Rate" for the "8 core Athena Chiplet." That is on par[2] with a Intel Core i5-9600K (circa 2018 CPU.) That's enough for useful workloads. I'm actually still using one for Linux work on a daily basis. That's about what I would expect: it's in the ballpark of plausibility, given the givens. It's not reasonable to expect parity with Zen 5 or whatever. They'll need some years yet to ramp up their designs. I excited about Tenstorrent. Keller as the boss: one can hope for great things. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h61k4wOOzZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h61k4wOOzZU [2] https://www.spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2019q1/cpu2017-20190121-10802.html https://www.spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2019q1/cpu2017-20190...