The partnership also involves Rapidus Corp., a newly established Japanese semiconductor company. Rapidus will work with Tenstorrent on wafer processing and advanced packaging, aligning with their shared commitment to optimizing the total manufacturing process. This collaboration signifies a crucial step in Japan’s efforts to regain leadership in high-performance compute design, with Tenstorrent’s expertise, LSTC’s vision, and Rapidus Corporation’s commitment shaping the future of AI in Japan.
Tenstorrent will deploy its Ascalon RISC-V CPU core technology to co-develop a RISC-V CPU chiplet for LSTC’s new edge AI accelerator. This strategic alignment is based on their shared vision for the future of silicon, emphasizing heterogeneous compute by combining RISC-V CPUs and AI cores for seamless handling of diverse workloads. The joint effort represents the first cross-organizational chiplet development in the semiconductor industry.
Jim Keller, the CEO of Tenstorrent, is a renowned chip architect who has assembled a team of high-performance CPU engineers from Arm, AMD, Intel, Tesla, and Apple. Keller’s leadership and expertise in AI, RISC-V CPU, and heterogeneous compute development made Tenstorrent an ideal choice for LSTC. The company aims to avoid the mistakes made by other AI hardware makers and focus on building flexible solutions for the rapidly changing AI landscape while embracing open standards.
Tenstorrent differentiates itself from competitors by offering open-source technologies, using a bottoms-up approach to its open metal stack. The company believes in the combination of compute and acceleration, using a high-performance RISC-V CPU together with AI. Its business model involves monetizing each step of the process, from IP creation to chip manufacturing to system integration and software sales.
Primarily, Tenstorrent competes with Nvidia and offers PCI boards or accelerator boards for workstations, servers, and its ultra-dense 32-chip rack called Galaxy. These accelerators are designed to run inference training for NLP and language models. However, Tenstorrent’s designs are distinct from GPUs as they are specifically optimized for AI. The company uses RISC-V compute cores that enable unique capabilities important to AI applications.
Tenstorrent has already formed partnerships with Hyundai, Samsung, and LG, with the latter considering integrating Tenstorrent tech into its TVs. The company is currently working on its second-generation technology and has more than 400 employees. In July 2021, it raised $221 million and has since received strategic investments from Samsung and Hyundai.
Overall, the collaboration between Tenstorrent, LSTC, and Rapidus represents an exciting development in Japan’s pursuit of high-performance compute design. With Tenstorrent’s innovative solutions, LSTC’s vision, and Rapidus Corporation’s commitment, the partnership is expected to shape the future of AI in Japan. By combining RISC-V CPU technology and chiplet development, the companies aim to redefine AI performance standards and establish Japan as a leader in advanced AI hardware solutions.
