Tenstorrent has announced a change to the specifications of its Blackhole p150 cards. Through a firmware update, the number of active Tensor cores will be reduced from 140 to 120.

Performance Impact

According to Tenstorrent, users already using Blackhole p150 cards should expect a performance decrease in the order of 1-2%. New cards, however, will ship directly with the 120 Tensor core configuration.

Motivations

The company has not specified the precise reasons behind this decision. However, changes of this type may be related to optimizations in production yield, thermal management, or other engineering factors.

Considerations

This change highlights how hardware specifications can be subject to change even after a product's release. It is essential for users to monitor manufacturer communications and assess the impact of such changes on their workloads.