Graphcore Introduces Revolutionary WoW Processor and Plans for Ultra-Intelligent AI Supercomputer

British semiconductor company Graphcore has made headlines with the launch of the first Wafer-on-Wafer (WoW) processor and its ambitious roadmap for an “ultra-intelligence AI supercomputer.” The newly unveiled chip, known as the Bow IPU, is the world’s first processor utilizing TSMC’s groundbreaking WoW technology.

Paul de Bot, General Manager of TSMC Europe, stated, “TSMC has partnered closely with Graphcore as a leading customer for our innovative SoIC-WoW solution, making them an ideal match due to their pioneering designs in advanced parallel processing architectures.” The WoW technology bonds two wafers together to create a novel 3D die where the first wafer is dedicated to AI processing, featuring 1,472 independent IPU-Core tiles capable of executing over 8,800 threads and housing 900MB of in-processor memory. The second wafer serves as a power delivery die equipped with deep trench capacitors, significantly boosting performance by being in proximity to processing cores and memory.

Compared to its predecessors, the Bow IPU promises up to 40% higher performance and 16% enhanced power efficiency for real-world AI applications. Notably, the flagship Bow Pod offers over 89 petaFLOPS of AI compute, with its superscale version achieving a staggering 350 petaFLOPS.

Plans for Ultra-Intelligence AI Supercomputer

One of the most captivating announcements was Graphcore’s plan to develop an ultra-intelligence AI supercomputer. The company draws parallels with the human brain, which consists of around 100 billion neurons and over 100 trillion parameters, delivering unmatched computational capabilities that current silicon computers have yet to replicate.

The proposed computer, named the ‘Good’ computer after computer science pioneer Jack Good, aims to exceed the brain’s parametric capacity. Good, noted for his groundbreaking work during World War II, first described a machine surpassing human intelligence in a 1965 paper, stating that such a machine could lead to an “intelligence explosion,” making it the last invention humanity would need to develop.

By 2024, Graphcore expects to deliver this ultra-intelligence AI computer, which will feature:

• Over 10 exaFLOPS of AI floating-point compute
• Up to four petabytes of memory with more than 10 petabytes/second bandwidth
• Support for AI model sizes of 500 trillion parameters
• 3D wafer on wafer logic stack
• Full compatibility with Graphcore’s Poplar® SDK
• Expected cost: ~$120 million, depending on configuration

Graphcore has indicated that more updates regarding the Good computer will be released throughout the year.

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