[…]Qualcomm said that both the AI200, which will go on sale in 2026, and the AI250, planned for 2027, can come in a system that fills up a full, liquid-cooled server rack.
Qualcomm is matching Nvidia and AMD
, which offer their graphics processing units, or GPUs, in full-rack systems that allow as many as 72 chips to act as one computer. AI labs need that computing power to run the most advanced models.
Qualcomm’s data center chips are based on the AI parts in Qualcomm’s smartphone chips called Hexagon neural processing units, or NPUs.
[…]
Qualcomm said its chips are focusing on inference, or running AI models, instead of training, which is how labs such as OpenAI create new AI capabilities by processing terabytes of data.
The chipmaker said that its rack-scale systems would ultimately cost less to operate for customers such as cloud service providers, and that a rack uses 160 kilowatts, which is comparable to the high power draw from some Nvidia GPU racks.
Malladi said Qualcomm would also sell its AI chips and other parts separately, especially for clients such as hyperscalers that prefer to design their own racks.
[…]
The company declined to comment, the price of the chips, cards or rack, and how many NPUs could be installed in a single rack.
[…]
Qualcomm said its AI chips have advantages over other accelerators in terms of power consumption, cost of ownership, and a new approach to the way memory is handled. It said its AI cards support 768 gigabytes of memory, which is higher than offerings from Nvidia and AMD.
[…]
Source: Qualcomm announces AI chips to compete with AMD and Nvidia
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