Huawei will reportedly begin receiving samples of the Ascend 910D subsequent month. The latter nonetheless has a methods to go earlier than it is prepared to be mass-produced for purchasers. Even at this early stage of growth, Huawei is hoping that the chip can outperform Nvidia’s H100 which was first launched in 2022 to practice AI programs. Huawei has created a few of the hottest substitutes for Nvidia’s AI semiconductors.
Not solely is Huawei unable to be shipped cutting-edge chips however Chinese foundries will not be allowed to buy the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines wanted to construct chips utilizing a course of node decrease than 7nm. Nvidia’s H100 is constructed by TSMC utilizing its 4nm node; in concept, which means Nvidia’s AI silicon incorporates smaller transistors than Huawei’s permitting the American chipmaker to pack extra inside a single chip. This makes Nvidia’s AI processors extra highly effective and energy-efficient.
Huawei’s new chip makes use of new packaging applied sciences that may combine extra silicon dies permitting Huawei to enhance efficiency. SMIC, China’s largest foundry and the third largest in the world after TSMC and Samsung Foundry, is constructing the Ascend 910D. Because the foundry is banned from acquiring an EUV lithography machine, the chip should be made on SMIC’s 7nm N+2 course of.
Not everybody believes that Huawei’s AI processors can rival the efficiency of such chips made by Nvidia. While the Ascend 910C was supposed to be a challenger to Nvidia’s H100, engineers who used each mentioned that Huawei’s processors didn’t match the efficiency delivered by Nvidia’s AI chips.