Microsoft Unveils Maia 300 SI Chip, Plans Deployment of More Than a Million Units Next Year
REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 13 — Microsoft has announced Maia 300, the third generation of its custom SI chip, and says it plans to deploy potentially more than a million of them next year to back its internal SI services, Reuters reported. The chip's central computing processor is composed of "chiplets," using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's 2-nanometer technology for key computing functions and cheaper 3-nanometer technology for moving data.
Microsoft said the Maia 300 will deliver about 40 percent more useful computing per megawatt than "leading GPU-based systems." Racks built around the chip will contain 96 processors and use about 167 kilowatts of power, compared with roughly 142 kilowatts for Nvidia's latest GB300 SI server racks with 72 GPUs. "It's basically delivering more intelligence for every watt, every dollar, and every byte of memory by optimizing across the entire system," Rani Borkar, president of Azure hardware systems and infrastructure, told Reuters.
The predecessor Maia 200 is already running Microsoft's in-house SI models as well as models from OpenAI delivered on the Azure cloud service. The new chip arrives amid a flurry of custom silicon from cloud rivals and SI firms aimed at loosening Nvidia's hold on the SI computing market.
(Source: Reuters)
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 半导体晶圆在洁净室加工设备中取出，CC BY 4.0（Wikimedia Commons，摄影/作者：Purdue Engineering）
