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Vsora Jotunn-8 5nm European inference chip

vsora.com

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Re: Vsora Jotunn-8 5nm European inference chip

#11

Post by lukan »

embedding-shape wrote: post #9
pclmulqdq wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the CGI graphics and indications in their published material that all they have is a simulation. A It's all there without disclosing an anticipated release date. Even their product pages and their news page don't seem to have indications of this. Also, the 3D graphic of their chip on a circuit board is missing some obvious support pieces, so it's clearly not from a CAD model. Lots of chip startups start as th…

> Even their product pages and their news page don't seem to have indications of this. This seems indicative enough for me, give or take a quarter or two probably, from the latest news post on their website: > VSORA is now preparing for full-scale deployment, with development boards, reference designs, and servers expected in early 2026. https://vsora.com/vsora-announces-tape-out-of-game-changing-... Seems they have…

"that they have dev-boards ready is months rather than years at least gives me enough to wait until then to judge them too harshly."

So far, they just talk about it.

Re: Vsora Jotunn-8 5nm European inference chip

#13

Post by Ethan312 »

Always good to see more competition in the inference chip space, especially from Europe. The specs look solid, but the real test will be how mature the software stack is and whether teams can get models running without a lot of friction. If they can make that part smooth, it could become a practical option for workloads that want local control.

Re: Vsora Jotunn-8 5nm European inference chip

#14

Post by leo_e »

Impressive numbers on paper, but looking at their site, this feels dangerously close to vaporware.

The bottleneck for inference right now isn't just raw FLOPS or even memory bandwidth—it's the compiler stack. The graveyard of AI hardware startups is filled with chips that beat NVIDIA on specs but couldn't run a standard PyTorch graph without segfaulting or requiring six months of manual kernel tuning.

Until I see a dev board and a working graph compiler that accepts ONNX out of the box, this is just a very expensive CGI render.

Re: Vsora Jotunn-8 5nm European inference chip

#15

Post by mg »

leo_e wrote: post #14

Impressive numbers on paper, but looking at their site, this feels dangerously close to vaporware. The bottleneck for inference right now isn't just raw FLOPS or even memory bandwidth—it's the compiler stack. The graveyard of AI hardware startups is filled with chips that beat NVIDIA on specs but couldn't run a standard PyTorch graph without segfaulting or requiring six months of manual kernel tuning. Until I see a d…

Six months of one developer tuning the kernel?

That seems like not much compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars US companies currently invest into their AI stack? OpenAI pays thousands of engineers and researchers full time.

Re: Vsora Jotunn-8 5nm European inference chip

#16

Post by m00dy »

leo_e wrote: post #14

Impressive numbers on paper, but looking at their site, this feels dangerously close to vaporware. The bottleneck for inference right now isn't just raw FLOPS or even memory bandwidth—it's the compiler stack. The graveyard of AI hardware startups is filled with chips that beat NVIDIA on specs but couldn't run a standard PyTorch graph without segfaulting or requiring six months of manual kernel tuning. Until I see a d…

very good point leo_e

indeed no mention of PyTorch in their website...honestly it looks a bit scammy as well

Re: Vsora Jotunn-8 5nm European inference chip

#17

Post by ano-ther »

I don’t get the negativity.

The specs look impressive. It is always good to have competition.

They announced tapeout in October with planned dev boards next year. Vaporware is when things don’t appear, not when they are on their way (it takes some time for hardware).

It’s also strategically important for Europe to have its own supply. The current and last US administration have both threatened to limit supply of AI chips to European countries, and China would do the same (as they have shown with Nexperia).

And of course you need the software stack with it. They will have thought of that.

https://vsora.com/vsora-announces-tape-out-of-game-changing-...

Re: Vsora Jotunn-8 5nm European inference chip

#20

Post by NaomiLehman »

ano-ther wrote: post #17

I don’t get the negativity. The specs look impressive. It is always good to have competition. They announced tapeout in October with planned dev boards next year. Vaporware is when things don’t appear, not when they are on their way (it takes some time for hardware). It’s also strategically important for Europe to have its own supply. The current and last US administration have both threatened to limit supply of AI c…

im guessing the negativity is caused by bad branding
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