When he founded Trilogy, it was as if he proposed to create the world in five days rather than the previous record of six. But why not, given his repu

Wafer Scale - The Trilogy Disaster: Part 1 - by Babbage

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2024-10-10 02:00:06

When he founded Trilogy, it was as if he proposed to create the world in five days rather than the previous record of six. But why not, given his reputation for near omnipotence?

One of the recurring themes of this Substack is that some of the ideas underpinning the latest innovations have been around for a long time. They may not be widely used, but they stay around until the right supporting technologies or commercial applications emerge to make them viable.

Take modern AI. Artificial neural networks date back to the 1940s. Systolic arrays, used in Google’s TPUs, have been around since the 1970s. And now, completing the trilogy, we see Wafer-Scale Integration (WSI) - creating huge integrated circuits from an entire silicon wafer - making headlines.

WSI is in the news because Cerebras has filed for an Initial Public Offering on NASDAQ. Cerebras makes systems designed to accelerate AI training and inference, competing with established firms like Nvidia and AMD. Using dinner-plate-sized wafers is one key way they distinguish themselves from competitors.