Infrastructure & Compute
TPU
Tensor processing unit
Specialized hardware designed to accelerate machine-learning calculations.
Example
A cloud TPU runs large machine-learning workloads optimized for tensor operations.
Why it matters
It accelerates suitable AI calculations using a specialized design.
You'll hear it
“This setup is designed to run the model on TPUs.”
Can you control it?
Set by the team
The people building or running the AI choose this setup. An everyday user generally needs their help to change how this part works.
Common questions
- Does specialized hardware guarantee lower cost?
- No. Utilization, software and the particular task affect the result.
- Can every existing program run on it unchanged?
- Not necessarily. Some work needs compatible software or adaptation.
- Does it store the entire application by itself?
- No. A working service also needs other computing and storage components.