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Tesla HW 4.0 Chips baked with TSMC at 7nm have a Monolithic design
If you own or desire a Tesla, then you know these cars have autopilot and are getting closer and closer to fully autonomous driving. To support that latest feature, a new hardware update is pending. The new chips will be significant, massive, and classified as HPC chips.
Tesla will only be able to recover 25 chips per 12-inch wafer from its HW 4.0 design, which does not include yield corrections. The new chip designed in collaboration with Broadcom would be fabbed at 7nm. So that means these chips are bulky and even monolothic in size (which is prone to affect yields bigtime if you ask me). To paint a more clear picture, current HW3 3.0 chips are 20x13mm and can fit 217 on one 14nm wafer. So on 7nm HW3.0 would fit 434 chips compared top the 25 for HW 4.0. The new HPC chips would steer Tesla into autonomous driving. Due to the size of these chips, we also have some doubts about power consumption. Current HW3.0 takes roughly 200 Watts of power while driving.
Broadcom and TSMC would have targeted the first production by the end of this year. Two thousand wafers, which are suitable for 50,000 chips. Then it would be scaled up in next year with mass production in late 2021.
Andy Watson
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Posts: 300
Joined: 2017-09-22
#5820039 Posted on: 08/20/2020 11:08 AM
I assume that all current Teslas will have to have these retrofitted to get full self driving for people who paid for that functionality? That's quite a few cars as Tesla is selling 100k per quarter and hopes to expand.
I assume that all current Teslas will have to have these retrofitted to get full self driving for people who paid for that functionality? That's quite a few cars as Tesla is selling 100k per quarter and hopes to expand.
wavetrex
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Senior Member
Posts: 1696
Joined: 2008-07-16
#5820058 Posted on: 08/20/2020 01:09 PM
A few screws, a few wires, done.
Not everyone will do it, like @Maddness , most probably won't care and are okay with just having the safety features (lane keeping, automatic braking, collision avoidance).
The overall cost for Tesla for the swap will be tiny, compared to the massive profits that a fully autonomous army of Robo-Taxis can bring, assuming they manage do achieve Level 5 autonomy.
I assume that all current Teslas will have to have these retrofitted
My guess is it will be quite simple to swap in the new card, just like upgrading a GPU.A few screws, a few wires, done.
Not everyone will do it, like @Maddness , most probably won't care and are okay with just having the safety features (lane keeping, automatic braking, collision avoidance).
The overall cost for Tesla for the swap will be tiny, compared to the massive profits that a fully autonomous army of Robo-Taxis can bring, assuming they manage do achieve Level 5 autonomy.
D1stRU3T0R
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Posts: 643
Joined: 2017-08-16
#5820081 Posted on: 08/20/2020 02:22 PM
Is it really worth the struggle to make a new chip? Why don't just create a Custom AMD cheap, since it would be a big win win for both. Tesla would make it they own Epyc/Threadripper which is much more OP than this, like the chinese did, and AMD would ....win.....
Is it really worth the struggle to make a new chip? Why don't just create a Custom AMD cheap, since it would be a big win win for both. Tesla would make it they own Epyc/Threadripper which is much more OP than this, like the chinese did, and AMD would ....win.....
Denial
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#5820082 Posted on: 08/20/2020 02:25 PM
Because an ASIC designed for Tesla's home grown self driving stack will easily outperform any GPGPU/CPU AMD could make at a fraction of the cost per unit.
There is a reason why ever large company doing AI work is going vertical.
Is it really worth the struggle to make a new chip? Why don't just create a Custom AMD cheap, since it would be a big win win for both. Tesla would make it they own Epyc/Threadripper which is much more OP than this, like the chinese did, and AMD would ....win.....
Because an ASIC designed for Tesla's home grown self driving stack will easily outperform any GPGPU/CPU AMD could make at a fraction of the cost per unit.
There is a reason why ever large company doing AI work is going vertical.
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Whilst I'd personally love a Tesla, not really comfortable with an autopilot. I realize it is the future, but I get simple pleasure from just driving my own automobile.