C. Scott Brown\/Android Authority<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
TL;DR<\/p>\n
- \n
- Google has announced the eighth generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) for its data centers.<\/li>\n
- The new category of TPU is divided based on use, with separate units for training and inference.<\/li>\n
- Google says this reduces the energy required for the actual end use, which should benefit the environment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n
At its Google Cloud Next event last year, Google announced the Ironwood class of tensor processing units (TPUs) that power its data centers. Designed with the AI \u200b\u200bera in mind, these TPUs focus largely on the ability of AI to make inferences or predictions based on what it has been trained on (essentially what chatbots do), but without actually knowing the answer in advance. This year, it has made further advances in TPU hardware and is now splitting the computation to perform training and inference separately.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nAt Cloud Next 2026, Google announced its eighth generation of TPUs with different architectures for different purposes. The newly introduced TPUs include the TPU 8T, which will be used for training AI models, and the TPU 8i, which will be specialized for inference-related duties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nGoogle says the split is done to address the different power and computing requirements of the two processes. This approach will help its data centers reduce energy consumption, thereby reducing operating costs and reducing the negative impacts of AI on the environment. This means your use of Gemini to keep data centers cool may soon (hopefully!) consume a lot less water.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_light@2x.png.webp "\\"Google"){kind=icon}
<\/picture>![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_dark@2x.png.webp "\\"Google"){kind=icon}
<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/google-tensor-8th-gen-differences-scaled.jpg.webp "\\"Google")
<\/picture>\n