Cerebras brings wafer-size AI chips to medical data analysis

AI chip startup Cerebras Systems has deployed one of its CS-2 systems at a well-funded startup that uses natural language processing to analyze massive amounts of biomedical data. As announced on Monday, nference plans to use this CS-2 to train large transformer models that are designed to process information from piles of …

[Anonymous Coward]

I can now talk about these systems. Note that this is second hand info.

They are pretty d*mn impressive. But like a lot of devices in this class a lot depends on what you are trying to do. What this system excels at are calculations that involve transferring a lot of data between cores. Getting data out of memory into the processors isn't going to be any faster, nor is each individual core faster at performing operations. But if your need fits its strength, it does appear stand out and meet the marketing hype.

One caveat - all of that power on a single chip does lead to a LOT of heat concentrated in one place. So while the computer itself may sit in a relatively small area the cooling system...doesn't. Also be sure and check your power availability.