Nvidia unveiled a replacement for the A100 chip for the Chinese market, with reduced data-processing speed, in line with U.S. authorities’ requirements. TechCrunch reports.
Most key characteristics of Nvidia’s A800 GPU are similar to the A100 accelerator, except for the data-transfer speed. The company has reduced this metric from 600 Gb/s to 400 Gb/s, the cap set by the U.S. government.
“This is another Nvidia A100 GPU alternative for customers in China. The A800 complies with the U.S. government’s explicit test for easing export controls and cannot be programmed to exceed it,” said a company spokesperson.
He added that production of the accelerators has already begun.
The A100 processor is used in supercomputers, artificial intelligence, and high-performance data centers across various industries. One of the largest buyers of the chips was the Chinese tech giant Alibaba.
Chip distributors in China have already added the A800 to their catalogs.
Earlier, the U.S. government placed the A100 and Nvidia’s enterprise AI chip H100 on the export-control list. U.S. authorities fear that their technologies could be used by China for military purposes.
According to Nvidia, the export ban on chips will affect potential sales in China in Q3 2022 by up to $400 million. The new accelerator is likely an attempt to offset the losses.
According to reporters, Nvidia is not the only company slowing chips to circumvent U.S. sanctions. The Chinese startup Biren has also modified its AI accelerator to meet U.S. authorities’ requirements.
This is linked to the fact that the firm orders chip production from the Taiwanese company TSMC. Export controls apply to all firms using American technology. To avoid sanctions, TSMC may refuse to produce certain products.
In September, the U.S. government restricted the supply of AI chips to China and Russia. The high-tech products of Nvidia and AMD were included in the ban.
In October, President Joe Biden’s administration published a set of export-control measures aimed at prohibiting shipments of advanced American chips to China. The new restrictions affected 28 Chinese companies.
In November, TSMC halted shipments of chips to the Chinese AI accelerator maker Biren, amid fears of U.S. sanctions.
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