Tiny-tpu: A minimal tensor processing unit (TPU), inspired by Google's TPU
269 points
by admp
4 days ago
| 6 comments
| github.com
| HN
mdaniel
4 days ago
[-]
reply
webdevver
4 days ago
[-]
we are incredibly overdue for the 3D-printer-ification of silicon chips
reply
snek_case
3 days ago
[-]
Don't hold your breath. Chip fabrication is extremely sophisticated. It's basically nanotechnology. Not something that could practically be done at home anytime soon.
reply
__MatrixMan__
3 days ago
[-]
I agree, photolithography at home is a long way out.

I think if we want to distribute the means of computational production, a better approach would be to print oligonucleotide instructions (requires a custom inkjet printer), and use a cell free extract (e. coli would work) to synthesize proteins which are programmed to assemble the computational substrate from nanoparticles.

Something along these lines: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1422649112

reply
mptest
2 days ago
[-]
That being the better approach says volumes about the complexity of lithography.

For anyone reading this, read Chip Wars by Chris Miller. The Lithography sub-story that threads through is amazing and fascinating and the whole book is incredible besides.

For those who think Ai Is a bubble and longshot, look up how crazy of a bet EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography was.

reply
jononor
3 days ago
[-]
I think that before that will be the PCB-ification, where you can order online and be batched in with others on a standardized process, for a reasonable price. This is actually starting to become possible, for example via TinyTapeout you can get tiny chips taped out for a few hundred USD.
reply
LargoLasskhyfv
3 days ago
[-]
That exists, sort of. Just not at an affordable level for home use.

But still worlds apart from current semiconductor fabrication with billions of necessary investments.

https://www.yokogawa.com/industries/semiconductor/minimal-fa...

reply
queuebert
3 days ago
[-]
There is a company called Nano Dimension working on something like that. Last I heard their 3d printer wasn't at the consumer level yet, but neither were computers in the early days.
reply
john_minsk
4 days ago
[-]
How did you create such amazing animation with svgs? Cool docs
reply
xrd
3 days ago
[-]
I was interested in this as well. The site is awesome and beautiful. And, I wished the SVGs were built in a way that (from my limited interaction) is basically just swapping new SVG in for each tick. It's really pretty, but I wished there was a bit more interaction and composability.
reply
mi_lk
3 days ago
[-]
Seems a bunch of excalidraw outputs stacked together, no?
reply
john_minsk
1 day ago
[-]
May be. I don't know. Thanks for answering - will check the excalidraw!
reply
ForOldHack
4 days ago
[-]
Can I get a PCIe card with multiple units and An easy interface? Say 4 TPUs and 8 ram slots? $5,000???
reply
mdaniel
3 days ago
[-]
I had approximately the same comment in a thread under a submission about a new CPU <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44201707> and the replies highlighted my understanding of exactly how slow using sticks of RAM versus on-die VRAM. I'd still enjoy trying it, but I have not yet loaded enough of the FPGA ecosystem in my head to know how many hours I am away from watching the bits flow
reply
faangguyindia
4 days ago
[-]
Those who are expert at this, how many TPUs i need to run lets say

Gemini flash 2.5 and pro 2.5 models for 1 user?

reply
mdaniel
4 days ago
[-]
Ah, and a psuedo dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44944592 but I'll be straight that I think the current point spread is accurate because I much prefer the repo link to some random .com domain
reply