Graphcore

Graphcore is taking on Nvidia’s AI prowess with its line of intelligence processing units that it said can outpace the rival’s A100 GPU. Last year, the Bristol, U.K.-based startup launched its Colossus MK2 IPU, which consists of 1,472 independent processor cores, 8,832 separate parallel threads and 900 MB of on-board ultra-high-speed RAM. The startup’s purpose-built 1U M2000 system is outfitted with four MK2 IPUs, making it capable of 1 petaflop, or 3 quadrillion calculations per second. The M2000 is also equipped with the startup’s ultra-low-latency IPU-Fabric, which can support scale-out deployments of up to 64,000 IPUs. The startup recently said that its IPUs are now supported by Supermicro Ultra servers, which are available through the Graphcore Elite Partner Program.