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Title: Google's Next Moonshot Is Putting TPUs In Space With 'Project
Suncatcher'

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/11/04/2...

Google's new "Project Suncatcher" aims to launch Tensor Processing Units
(TPUs) into space, creating a solar-powered, satellite-based AI network
capable of scaling machine learning beyond Earth's limits. Google says a
"solar panel can be up to 8 times more productive than on earth" for near-
continuous power using a "dawn-dusk sun-synchronous low earth orbit" that
reduces the need for batteries and other power generation. 9to5Google
reports: These satellites would connect via free-space optical links, with
large-scale ML workloads "distributing tasks across numerous accelerators
with high-bandwidth, low-latency connections." To match data centers on
Earth, the connection between satellites would have to be tens of terabits
per second, and they'd have to fly in "very close formation (kilometers or
less)." Google has already conducted radiation testing on TPUs (Trillium,
v6e), with "promising" results: "While the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM)
subsystems were the most sensitive component, they only began showing
irregularities after a cumulative dose of 2 krad(Si) -- nearly three times
the expected (shielded) five year mission dose of 750 rad(Si). No hard
failures were attributable to TID up to the maximum tested dose of 15
krad(Si) on a single chip, indicating that Trillium TPUs are surprisingly
radiation-hard for space applications." Finally, Google believes that launch
costs will "fall to less than $200/kg by the mid-2030s." At that point, the
"cost of launching and operating a space-based data center could become
roughly comparable to the reported energy costs of an equivalent terrestrial
data center on a per-kilowatt/year basis."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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