Nvidia has created a brand new knowledge heart GPU for the Chinese language market, designed to satisfy new US export management guidelines. In line with a report from Reuters (opens in new tab), the chip is named the A800, and can be utilized rather than the A100 for a similar duties.
The A100, utilized in supercomputers by the likes of Oracle (opens in new tab), Tesla (opens in new tab) and Meta (opens in new tab), is a Tensor core GPU primarily based on the Ampere structure (as within the RTX 30-series). They’re closely used for AI, and deep studying duties equivalent to picture and speech recognition, in addition to high-performance computing. They characteristic as much as 80GB of reminiscence per chip, the world’s quickest reminiscence bandwidth at 2TB/s, and the power to hyperlink collectively via PCIe Gen 4 enabling hundreds of GPUs to work in unison.
US commerce guidelines set earlier this yr prohibit the export of superior chips to China. To forestall such high-tech merchandise from falling into navy arms and getting used for intelligence gathering from digital communications or satellite tv for pc photographs. The principles particularly restrict the chip switch fee to beneath 600GB/s. The brand new A800 GPU has a switch fee of 400GB/s.
Nvidia isn’t the one firm to be affected by the foundations, with AMD explaining to Reuters in September (opens in new tab) that it might now not promote its MI250 (opens in new tab) chips – additionally utilized in supercomputers – to the populous Asian nation, however believed its MI100 (opens in new tab) HPC GPUs have been unaffected. In the identical report, it was claimed Nvidia stood to lose $400 million in only one quarter if not equipped with an exemption, one thing the brand new chip appears constructed to avoid.
“The Nvidia A800 GPU, which went into manufacturing in Q3, is one other different product to the Nvidia A100 GPU for purchasers in China. The A800 meets the US authorities’s clear check for lowered export management and can’t be programmed to exceed it,” a Nvidia spokesperson stated in a press release to Reuters.
China has accused the US of a ‘tech blockade’ that undermines the steadiness of worldwide provide chains. “The US continues to abuse export management measures to limit exports of semiconductor-related objects to China, which China firmly opposes,” Chinese language commerce ministry spokesperson Shu Jieting stated at a information convention in September.