Nvidia will release A100 PCIe version of computing card with 80GB HBM2e video memory
In May last year, Nvidia launched the A100 computing card based on the new-generation Ampere architecture. Its GA100 core with an area of up to 826mm2 is manufactured using TSMC’s 7nm process. The A100 computing card has two different forms, one is the SXM4 version, and the other is the PCIe version of the general specification. The latter is limited to two GPUs interconnected through NVLink.
After competitor AMD released the Instinct MI100 accelerator card based on the new generation of CDNA architecture, NVIDIA launched the SXM4 version of the A100 computing card with 80GB of HBM2e memory in November last year to meet the challenge with greater memory capacity. This product can provide 2TB/s of memory bandwidth, which is higher than the 1.6TB/s of the 40GB HBM2 version. The HBM2e used is an improved HBM2 with a frequency of 3.2Gbps, while the frequency of the HBM2 video memory used by the original A100 computing card is 2.4Gbps. Other specifications remain basically unchanged, including a single-precision performance of 19.5 TFLOPS and double-precision performance of 9.7 TFLOPS.
Recently, NVIDIA has quietly added the A100 PCIe version with 80GB HBM2e video memory in the official documents of the data center. This means that both SXM4 and PCIe two different forms will provide a 40GB HBM2 version and 80GB HBM2e version. According to Nvidia’s introduction, the A100 80GB version is very suitable for various applications that have huge demands on data, such as AI training, weather forecasting, and quantum chemistry. Nvidia calls it the world’s fastest data center GPU.
Nvidia has not confirmed the relevant situation for the time being, but the move to update the document is likely to indicate that the PCIe version of the A100 computing card with 80GB of HBM2e video memory will be released soon. Given that the price of the 40GB HBM2 version of the A100 computing card is about $15,000, it is expected that this A100 PCIe version of the computing card with 80GB HBM2e video memory may exceed $20,000.
