From EETimes: Google researchers published a paper last week discussing the performance of its home-grown TPUv4 AI accelerator chips, which garnered a lot of attention. In the paper, the researchers compare the performance of their chips with market leader Nvidia’s GPUs. This has been reported as “Google reveals its newest A.I. supercomputer, says it beats Nvidia,” according to CNBC, amongst others.
In the paper, the researchers are not claiming the TPUv4 outpaces Nvidia’s current-gen flagship AI accelerator, the H100. Instead, Google is comparing its TPUv4 to the previous-gen A100. The way this has been reported has prompted some industry-watchers to claim either that Google is “beating Nvidia,” or that Google is somehow making unfair comparisons. Neither is correct.
The A100 is an appropriate comparison for the TPUv4; both the TPUv4 and the A100 were deployed in 2020 and both use 7-nm process technologies. The Google paper does make clear which generation of Nvidia hardware it is comparing against.
“The newer, 700W H100 was not available at AWS, Azure or Google Cloud in 2022. The appropriate H100 match would be a successor to TPU v4 deployed in a similar time frame and technology (e.g., in 2023 and 4 nm),” the Google researchers say in the paper.
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