nvidia, meet the Hanguang 800

256 trillion calculations per second. :student:

Still only a 12nm process, so it's obviously all about the stacking and efficiencies that brings.

Chips are gettin' too-fast IMHO. I mean, there's a point beyond which there's no point... except for big tech, crypto mining and public profiling. :no:
 
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I'll start worrying when their individual chips are running dozens of multi-precision PFLOPS or more.
Most chip improvements over the last decade have had little to do with performance and most to do with efficiency.
Most performance gains have come from the addition of cores and smaller nodes mixed with multithreading/parallel leaning programming.
There are older architectures that would do better performance wise on smaller nodes than newer ones, they would just use more energy to do so.
Sometimes you end up with current leakage, so that's really the main reason architectures are altered outside of energy use.
Most all of these reasons are about the $. Unfortunately, China is probably more concerned about performance than energy consumption.
Which we should have been focused on simultaneously when developing consumer/end user chips. But we weren't.
Organic processors scare me more than any NPU.
Mostly because the former are idiots who stress about arms races more than safety.
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
I'll start worrying when their individual chips are running dozens of multi-precision PFLOPS or more.
Most chip improvements over the last decade have had little to do with performance and most to do with efficiency.
Most performance gains have come from the addition of cores and smaller nodes mixed with multithreading/parallel leaning programming.
There are older architectures that would do better performance wise on smaller nodes than newer ones, they would just use more energy to do so.
Sometimes you end up with current leakage, so that's really the main reason architectures are altered outside of energy use.
Most all of these reasons are about the $. Unfortunately, China is probably more concerned about performance than energy consumption.
Which we should have been focused on simultaneously when developing consumer/end user chips. But we weren't.
Organic processors scare me more than any NPU.
Mostly because the former are idiots who stress about arms races more than safety.
Click to expand...

Thing is, SMIC started in 2000; the Chinese have a "young" chip fabrication capability, and were relying on importing the high performing chips. With the embargo preventing China from buying the latest chip making equipment, they have turned inward, and have a ways to go to catch up to state-of-the-art.

This chip is significant not because of it's power or efficiency, it's because it was developed domestically in China with what they have to work with, which isn't state of the art. US invested $51B or so to boost domestic chip manufacturing; China invested $150B for domestic chip manufacturing.

China may be behind now, but they're working to change that; and to do it quickly. It could be a few years before they match foreign chips or surpass them.

Then there's quantum computing chips; the US has some but not in any significant numbers.
 
rsm said:
Thing is, SMIC started in 2000; the Chinese have a "young" chip fabrication capability, and were relying on importing the high performing chips. With the embargo preventing China from buying the latest chip making equipment, they have turned inward, and have a ways to go to catch up to state-of-the-art.

This chip is significant not because of it's power or efficiency, it's because it was developed domestically in China with what they have to work with, which isn't state of the art. US invested $51B or so to boost domestic chip manufacturing; China invested $150B for domestic chip manufacturing.

China may be behind now, but they're working to change that; and to do it quickly. It could be a few years before they match foreign chips or surpass them.

Then there's quantum computing chips; the US has some but not in any significant numbers.
Click to expand...
I'm not disagreeing with any of that regarding the significance, but I do wonder why it took them five years to tape this out and still be on 12nm?
It could be that they weren't able to get the architecture to play nice with smaller nodes or perhaps this is just the front for the market side of things. I really hope for the former, TBH.
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
I'm not disagreeing with any of that regarding the significance, but I do wonder why it took them five years to tape this out and still be on 12nm?
It could be that they weren't able to get the architecture to play nice with smaller nodes or perhaps this is just the front for the market side of things. I really hope for the former, TBH.
Click to expand...
China does not have access to the latest chip making technology (3 nm); they did state China can create 5 nm chips which was done by SMIC for Huawei.

My guess is this Hanguang 800 is just a first edition; it's for Alibaba ecommerce / cloud servers so size isn't a concern, likely performance and efficiency... a usable proof of concept. I expect they'll create smaller NM versions / generations.

China plays a long game in most things, however I see chip tech there differently. China faces even more high tech restrictions under a Trump administration, so they don't have time. First they need solutions, then capabilities for design and manufacture, then at scale. I think it's only a matter of time, just as they will eventually assimilate Taiwan; the pro-China political party in Taiwan is growing in power, if not popularity among younger Taiwanese IIRC.

I'm sure if the Taiwanese vote for reunification with China the US will call the vote corrupt and invalid, and may act to create conflict. The will of the people is only respected if it aligns with the will of the ruling parasites. The enemies of the US are increasing and getting stronger as the US gets weaker and self-destructs. IMO
 
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