Building & Running AI intermediate

TPU

Also called: tensor processing unit

Google's custom accelerator chip, purpose-built for machine learning workloads.

TPUs are ASICs designed specifically for the tensor operations in neural networks, available through Google Cloud rather than as hardware you buy. They are one example of a broader move to purpose-built AI silicon as general-purpose GPUs stop being the only option.

In practice: Large training runs on Google infrastructure typically use TPU pods.

Where this comes up