Cerebras CS-1 packs 400,000-core CPU, 1.2 trillion transistors for AI

It looks like we have finally found a system that can actually run Crysis -- the new Cerebras CS-1 system that is a new system for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. So while it might not run Crysis, it is a powerhouse for AI developers.

2

Cerebras CS-1 is actually quite small considering its processing power, with the 26-inch-tall PC packing an insane 400,000 cores and an even crazier 1.2 trillion transistors. The 400,000-core processor is called the Wafer Scale Engine (WSE) which has a trillion transistors, 18GB of on-chip SRAM, and an interconnect speed of up to 1PB/sec (yeah, petabytes per second).

2

The exciting WSE processor is absolutely huge, where next to a keyboard it looks fake even -- but this 1.2 trillion transistor processor indeed packs 400,000 processing cores. Cerebras Systems founder Andrew Feldman explains: "The CS-1 is the industry's fastest AI computer, and because it is easy to install, quick to bring up and integrates with existing AI models in TensorFlow and PyTorch, it delivers value the day it is deployed. Depending on workload, the CS-1 delivers hundreds or thousands of times the performance of legacy alternatives at one-tenth the power draw and one-tenth the space per unit compute".