Almost every component in a datacenter is upgradeable—in fact, the compute itself only has a lifespan of ~5 years—but the power requirements are basically locked-in. A 200MW data center will always be a 200MW data center, even though the flops it computes will increase.
The fact that we use this unit really nails the fact that AI is basically refining energy.
A 200MW data center will always be a 200MW data center, even though the flops it computes will increase.
N2 is shaping up to be TSMC's most important node since N7.
Is it?
N2, from an energy & perf improvement seems on par with any generation node update.
N2:N3 N3:N5 N5:N7
Power ~30% ~30% ~30%
Perf ~15% ~15% ~15%
Both AMD and NVIDIA are using N4.
Raw AC comes in, then gets stepped down, filtered, converted into DC rails, gated, timed, and pulsed. That’s already an industrial refinement process. The "crude" incoming power is shaped into the precise, stable forms that CPUs, GPUs, RAM, storage, and networking can actually use.
Then those stable voltages get flipped billions of times per second into ordered states, which become instructions, models, inferences, and other high-value "product."
It sure seems like series of processes for refining something.
Refining is taking a lower quality energy source and turning it into a higher quality one.
What you could argue is that it adds value to bits. But the bits themselves, their state is what matters, not the energy that transports them.
A power plant "mines" electron, which the data center then refines into words. or whatever. The point is that energy is the raw material that flows into data centers.
-- Michael Russel
A local to me ~40W datacenter used to be in really high demand, and despite having excess rack space, had no excess power. It was crazy.
But it very quickly became the best place in town for carrier interconnection. So every carrier wanted in.
Even when bigger local DC's went in, a lot of what they were doing was just landing virtual cross connects to the tiny one, because thats where everyone was.
I still have an Edison bulb that consumes more power.
Why is that? To do with the incoming power feed or something else?