Google brought its new TPU v5e to SC23 in Denver. It is uncommon for Google to bring this new hardware to events, and so the company has a security guard around the board. We managed to grab a few photos last evening of Google’s cloud AI board so other folks not at the show can see.
Google Brings TPU v5e AI Board to SC23
At SC23 inside a glass case was a Google TPU v5e board. We can see the four chips that sit under the large heatsinks in the middle of the board and then the interconnect ports on the front. While the TPU v5e is cool, the optical circuit switch interconnect technology Google has is perhaps and industry-leading feature.
Here is a closeup of the large heatsinks.
Here is a side-angle view of the board.
I managed to grab an overhead view even though there were folks all around. This should give some sense of scale compared to the four TPU v5e chips onboard.
Google published a TPU v5e video where it showed this assembly without the heatsinks.
You can also see closeups of the chips themselves in that video.
These are not available to purchase for your data center, but you can lease them via the Google Cloud.
Final Words
Google has been pushing the TPU line for years and usually has newer hardware than it shows publicly. Still, it was awesome to see the company actually bring hardware. Microsoft is the other hyper-scaler that brings hardware to the show while AWS usually skips showing people what is behind their cloud.
Thank you to Google for bringing its newest AI chips so we can see them.
