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Achronix's New VectorPath 815 FPGA Accelerator Card

Achronix Semiconductor Corporation, a prominent leader in data acceleration FPGAs, has officially announced the release of its latest innovation—the VectorPath® 815 (VP815). This cutting-edge PCIe accelerator card is primarily engineered to meet the escalating demands of artificial intelligence (AI) workloads and high-performance computing (HPC).

The VP815 is powered by the industry-leading Speedster® 7t1500 FPGA, which brings forth unmatched performance and efficiency tailored for today's AI-centric applications. One of the most remarkable features of this new accelerator card is its capability to dramatically enhance generative AI inferencing and HPC functionalities, making it an essential tool for enterprises looking to stay competitive in this rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Why FPGA?

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have distinct advantages over traditional processors like GPUs and CPUs when it comes to AI inferencing. Their massively parallel architecture, customizable data paths, and superior handling of sparse and irregular computations make them an ideal choice for AI tasks. Unlike rigid ASICs, FPGAs can adapt in real-time to evolving AI models, which is increasingly important as these models begin to leverage lower precision architectures, such as 1-bit or 2-bit computations. This shift allows for reduced computational overhead and optimized performance.

Achronix FPGAs are designed with integrated machine learning processors (MLPs) that are specifically optimized for these compact, quantized workloads, ensuring unparalleled performance for dynamic AI applications. The VP815 serves as a pinnacle example of this capability, providing exceptional performance and flexibility, hence, facilitating a quicker time-to-market for AI inferencing deployments that prioritize efficiency.

Cutting-Edge Performance

“With the ongoing need for high-performance and energy-efficient computing, Achronix has developed what is now the industry's most advanced power-performance-optimized FPGA acceleration platform,” stated Jansher Ashraf, the Director of AI Solutions Business Development at Achronix.

The VP815 delivers over 2,000 tokens per second for AI inferencing tasks, with an impressive 10 ms inter-token latency when using the LLAMA 3.1-8B Instruct model. This performance is designed to enable enterprises to boost their bandwidth-intensive applications with a remarkable cost advantage compared to traditional GPU solutions, cited at over three times the total cost of ownership advantage.

Performance in Action

The VP815 is tailored for various demanding applications:

• - Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs): This card is engineered to achieve industry-leading performance for LLMs, effectively powering diverse AI applications such as text generation, conversational agents, and AI-assisted content creation, while simultaneously ensuring lower latency.
• - Automated Speech Recognition (ASR): Capable of transcribing 2,400 simultaneous audio streams with support for multiple languages, it achieves latency levels below 25 ms. The VP815 ensures an industry-leading word error rate of less than 3%, crucial for real-time applications in contact centers and AI-based services.

Advantages of the VP815

• - Extreme Performance and Scalability: Utilizing thousands of advanced machine learning processors and innovative 2D network-on-chip architecture allows for high-speed data movement throughout the FPGA. The high-bandwidth GDDR6 memory interfaces offer a staggering 4 Tbps of bandwidth, enabling superior inferencing performance.
• - Flexible AI Workload Acceleration: Unlike fixed-function AI processors, the VP815 provides the flexibility to customize and optimize for specific AI models, resulting in sustained efficiency, even as workloads evolve over time.
• - Supply Continuity: The VP815 employs GDDR6 chip-down memory, serving as a more stable, lower-cost alternative compared to other FPGA-based cards that rely on increasingly scarce HBM2e resources.

VP815 Configuration

The essential functionalities of the VP815 include:

• - Speedster 7t1500 FPGA with 2,560 MLPs supporting multiple number formats, capable of executing up to 82,000 INT4 MACs.
• - 2D NoC architecture for rapid data movement.
• - Support for PCIe Gen5 ×16 and dual 400 Gb Ethernet channels through 32 112 Gb SerDes.
• - 692k LUTs of programmable logic.
• - Total memory capacity of 32 GB GDDR6 memory delivering 4 Tbps bandwidth across 16 channels, alongside 16 GB of DDR4 RAM operating at 3200 MHz with over 200 Gbps bandwidth.

Achronix Virtual Lab (AVL)

As part of its offerings, Achronix has introduced the Achronix Virtual Lab, a dedicated cluster equipped with VectorPath 815 accelerator cards. This platform enables clients to evaluate and test FPGA designs within AI and HPC contexts efficiently. By providing secure remote access to this advanced hardware, the AVL significantly accelerates development cycles, ultimately reducing time-to-market for innovative FPGA solutions.

Availability

The VectorPath 815 is now in volume production, and prospective customers can easily access the Achronix Virtual Lab for remote evaluation. Detailed inquiries regarding the card or AVL access can be directed to Achronix via email.

About Achronix Semiconductor

Established in 2004, Achronix Semiconductor Corporation is renowned for its high-performance FPGA solutions. As a unique provider of standalone FPGAs and embedded FPGA (eFPGA) IP, Achronix is committed to delivering data acceleration solutions that cater to applications across AI, machine learning, networking, and data centers. Their suite of products includes the Speedster®7t FPGA family, Speedcore™ eFPGA IP, and VectorPath® accelerator cards, all supported by the cutting-edge Achronix ACE software tools.

For more information, feel free to visit Achronix's official website.