Google showed off its brand new AI chip, Ironwood. It is the first chip made just for running AI models rather than training them. Google announced it at Google Cloud Next 25, calling it their most powerful and efficient AI chip ever.
Cloud customers can choose between two versions—one with 256 chips or a massive setup with 9,216 chips. The larger version packs 24 times more computing power than El Capitan (the world's biggest supercomputer), reaching 42.5 Exaflops. Ironwood runs twice as efficiently as its previous Trillium TPU chip.
The new chip holds 192 GB of memory per chip - six times more than before. It transfers data at 7.2 TBps per chip, which is 4.5 times faster than the previous version. Communication between chips happens at 1.2 Tbps, making everything run smoother when working with large AI systems.
These improvements show how fast companies are developing their own AI hardware. Microsoft already has its Maia 100 chip, and Amazon created its Graviton chip. These companies see that making their own chips gives them an edge against NVIDIA, which currently dominates the market.
Cloud customers can choose between two versions—one with 256 chips or a massive setup with 9,216 chips. The larger version packs 24 times more computing power than El Capitan (the world's biggest supercomputer), reaching 42.5 Exaflops. Ironwood runs twice as efficiently as its previous Trillium TPU chip.
The new chip holds 192 GB of memory per chip - six times more than before. It transfers data at 7.2 TBps per chip, which is 4.5 times faster than the previous version. Communication between chips happens at 1.2 Tbps, making everything run smoother when working with large AI systems.
These improvements show how fast companies are developing their own AI hardware. Microsoft already has its Maia 100 chip, and Amazon created its Graviton chip. These companies see that making their own chips gives them an edge against NVIDIA, which currently dominates the market.
