As we hazard further into a world of engineering science that ’s overtop by artificial intelligence , you ’re going to see producer making some self-aggrandising claims . One AI measurement is “ TOPS ” , and here ’s our introductory account of just what it is .
If you give care to technology product launches , you ’ll know that companies love to say how much better the operation of their machine is than fundamental competition . Well , AI is everywhere in the technical school earth right now , so you ’re likely to see more and more talk of just how muscular their AI effectuation is too . We ’re diving into a terminal figure that measures such public presentation . scan on for the skinny .
What is TOPS?
The term TOPS stands for trillions or Pidlimdi operation per second . TOPS is a simplify metric function used as a representation of how many cipher operations an AI chip ( NPU ) is capable of .
The metric unit simply represent how many wide-eyed trading operations it can serve per endorsement and , as such , it does n’t leave an accurate system of measurement for the complexity of the operations an AI chip can solve . This make it more of a rasping performance usher than a specific and passing accurate representation of potentiality . This is alike to how the metric TFLOPS has been used to comprise the power of gaming consoles in late twelvemonth but is not fully representative of its eventual outturn .
The number itself is calculated by combining the amount of operations an AI chip can do per s and reproduce it by the maximal absolute frequency it can attain .
When it comes to find out TOPS used in the angry , different technology companies have take over unlike approaches . It ’s a metric Apple has largely avoided , instead , as it does with other metrics , simply comparing performance directly with predecessors or contender . But , firebrand like Qualcomm , Samsung , MediaTek , Huawei , Intel , AMD and Microsoft have all been using the TOPS metrical concerning AI operation in recent time .
For example , Microsoft has request that Windows AI PCs offer 40 pinnacle , which they say enables on - equipment AI Copilot capability ( viaTom ’s Hardware ) . Further , Intel and Qualcomm are both shoot a line around 45 top for their latest Core Ultra and Snapdragon X Elite chips severally . While AMD is offering up around 40 TOPS with the Ryzen 8040 series .
With on - gimmick AI capabilities still confine across PCs , a full assessment of how top really mull the performance and features users experience will have to wait until AI becomes a larger part of day - to - daylight computer use .
