The Graphcore Second-Generation IPU

by | Jul 15, 2020 | Research Paper

Graphcore, the U.K.-based startup that launched the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU) for AI acceleration in 2018, has introduced the IPU-Machine. This second-generation platform has greater processing power, more memory and built-in scalability for handling extremely large parallel processing workloads. The well-funded startup has a blue-ribbon pedigree of engineers, advisers and investors, and enjoys a valuation approaching $2 billion. Its first-generation hardware is now available on the Microsoft Azure cloud as well as in Dell-EMC servers. Both companies are investors. Graphcore is now betting its future on this second-generation platform, a plug-and-play building block for massive scalability that is currently unique in the industry.

You can download the paper from the Graphcore website by clicking on the logo below:

Table Of Contents:

  • Introduction
  • The Colossus MK2 IPU (GC200)
  • The IPU-Machine (M2000)
  • The Second-Get IPU-Fabric
  • Updates To The Graphcore Software Stack
  • Performance
  • Conclusions
  • Figure 1: The Graphcore IPU-Machine
  • Figure 2: IPU-Machine M2000 Architectural Diagram
  • Figure 3: IPU-Machine Stacking Options
  • Figure 4: IPU-POD For Super Computing Scale
  • Figure 5: IPU-POD64 Reference Architecture
  • Figure 6: POPLAR SDK
  • Figure 7: IPU-POD Support For Multi-Tenancy
  • Figure 8: Colossus MK2 Performance

Companies Cited

  • Dell EMC
  • Graphcore
  • Microsoft Azure
  • NVIDIA