Saturday, August 3rd 2024
Design Issues May Postpone Launch of NVIDIA's Advanced Blackwell AI Chips
NVIDIA may face delays in releasing its newest artificial intelligence chips due to design issues, according to anonymous sources involved in chip and server hardware production cited by The Information. The delay could extend to three months or more, potentially affecting major customers such as Meta, Google, and Microsoft. An unnamed Microsoft employee and another source claim that NVIDIA has already informed Microsoft about delays affecting the most advanced models in the Blackwell AI chip series. As a result, significant shipments are not expected until the first quarter of 2025.
When approached for comment, an NVIDIA spokesperson did not address communications with customers regarding the delay but stated that "production is on track to ramp" later this year. The Information reports that Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, and Meta declined to comment on the matter, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) did not respond to inquiries.
Update 1:
Update 2:
SemiAnalysis's Dylan Patel reports in a message on Twitter (now known as X) that Blackwell supply will be considerably lower than anticipated in Q4 2024 and H1 2025. This shortage stems from TSMC's transition from CoWoS-S to CoWoS-L technology, required for NVIDIA's advanced Blackwell chips. Currently, TSMC's AP3 packaging facility is dedicated to CoWoS-S production, while initial CoWoS-L capacity is being installed in the AP6 facility.
Additionally, NVIDIA appears to be prioritizing production of GB200 NVL72 units over NVL36 units. The GB200 NVL36 configuration features 36 GPUs in a single rack with 18 individual GB200 compute nodes. In contrast, the NVL72 design incorporates 72 GPUs, either in a single rack with 18 double GB200 compute nodes or spread across two racks, each containing 18 single nodes.
Source:
Bloomberg
When approached for comment, an NVIDIA spokesperson did not address communications with customers regarding the delay but stated that "production is on track to ramp" later this year. The Information reports that Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, and Meta declined to comment on the matter, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) did not respond to inquiries.
The production issue was discovered by manufacturer TSMC, and involves the processor die that connects two Blackwell GPUs on a GB200." — via Data Center DynamicsNVIDIA needs to redesign its chip, requiring a new TSMC production test before mass production. Rumors say they're considering a single-GPU version to expedite delivery. The delay leaves TSMC production lines idle temporarily.
Update 2:
SemiAnalysis's Dylan Patel reports in a message on Twitter (now known as X) that Blackwell supply will be considerably lower than anticipated in Q4 2024 and H1 2025. This shortage stems from TSMC's transition from CoWoS-S to CoWoS-L technology, required for NVIDIA's advanced Blackwell chips. Currently, TSMC's AP3 packaging facility is dedicated to CoWoS-S production, while initial CoWoS-L capacity is being installed in the AP6 facility.
105 Comments on Design Issues May Postpone Launch of NVIDIA's Advanced Blackwell AI Chips
Their anti-competitive practices go largely unseen and unpunished when it's just PC gaming cards (focus group members pretending to be normal people, TWIMTBP pressuring developers, bullying tech reviewers, cheating image quality - such as texture filtering) but it seems outside the diabetic gaming market, there are consequences.
I'm sure diabetic gaming market only applies to the US though
happygamer.com/amd-allegedly-provided-early-access-purchase-codes-for-radeon-rx-6000-series-gpus-to-social-media-influencers-93459/
I miss participating and if I had any regret on giving up on the 7900 XTX - it's related to this, at the time I just wasn't prepared to take that risk. As long as the 8900 XTX or whatever RDNA 4 product they release performs to the same standard as the 7900 XTX or my RTX 4080, as long as it's priced right, I will become active and involved there again. Shame the ASUS ROG folks only release GeForce cards, but I'm sure Sapphire will release a nice Nitro+ card in white for me.
Though why aren't you doing that for Intel ARC :confused: , we need a third player in GPU market
It's a good thing you brought up ARC. The person who created the Vanguard program left to work at Intel, and I hear they have done something similar over there. Battlemage looks juicy. If Intel prices it right, might have to pick one up sometime. However, 4070 Ti target performance is a bit underwhelming for me. I need more.
4090 is just barely fast enough for 4K120 these days, 5090 can't come out soon enough
Weird to say that I beta testing something that works out of the box and had no problem whatsoever. Not to brag but the time I spent building new PC for friend and family (built like 5 of them within the last 6 months) to playing game is just 2 hours (including installing Win11)