> "Beating back all the PCI-E AER errors was hard, as anyone knows who has tried to build a system like this."
Define "hard".
The crypto mining community has had this working for at least half a decade with AMD cards. With Nvidia it's a non-issue. I'd be very, very curious to get more technical details on what new work they did here.
I ran 150,000 AMD cards for mining and we didn't run into that problem because we bought systems with PCIe baseboards (12x cards) instead of dumb risers. I'd be interested in finding out more details as well, but it seems he doesn't want to share that in public.
That said, if you think any of this is easy, you're the one who should define that word.
I never used the word easy, I never used the word hard. He used the word hard, you used the word easy.
With that said.
Easy: Assembling off the shelf PC components to provide what is fundamentally no different than what gamers/miners build every day. Six cards in a machine and two power supplies is low-end mining. Also see the x8 GPU machines with multiple power supplies that have been around forever. I'm not quite sure why you're arguing this so hard, you're more than familiar with these things.
Hard: Show me something with a BOM. Some manufacturing? PCB? Fab? Anything.
FWIW for someone that is frequently promoting their startup here you come across as pretty antagonistic. I'm not attacking you, just saying that for someone like myself that has been intrigued by what you're working on it gives me pause in terms of what I'd charitably refer to as potential personality/relationship issues.
Everyone has those days, just thought it was worth mentioning.
I totally get where you're coming from with the mining use case being straightforward. However, when it comes to AI, it's a different ball game. Each use case has its own set of requirements and optimizations, which is why many big mining operations find it challenging to shift towards AI. It's not just about assembling parts; it requires a deeper technical know-how.
For mining, the focus is mainly on GPUs, and the specifics like bus speed or other components aren't as critical. You could get by with a basic setup - a $35 CPU, 4GB of RAM, 100meg network, and PXE booting without any local storage. Even older GPUs like the RX470s did the job perfectly until the very end.
But what George is working on is something else entirely. It's not just about the number of GPUs; it's about creating a cohesive system where every component plays its part and is configured correctly. This complexity of tying everything together, is what makes it challenging. George is incredibly talented, and the fact that he's been dedicating himself to the tinybox project for a year now really speaks volumes about the intricacies involved.
Please don't think I'm trying to be confrontational - that's not my intention in the slightest. I appreciate your perspective, but I'm just trying to offer a different angle based on my own experience in this field.
While it might seem that this hardware isn't groundbreaking or that the developments could have been achieved earlier, it's important to recognize the innovation and hard work behind it. This isn't just about putting together existing pieces; it's about creating something that works better as a whole than the sum of its parts.
I'm confident that if we were to talk in person, we'd get along just fine.
Define "hard".
The crypto mining community has had this working for at least half a decade with AMD cards. With Nvidia it's a non-issue. I'd be very, very curious to get more technical details on what new work they did here.