Nvidia offers a slower chip for China that complies with US sanctions
The new A800 chip went into production in Q3
American GPU maker Nvidia has unveiled a new advanced chip that it claims is compliant with US export restrictions to China.
The chip, known as the A800, is believed to be the first attempt by a major US chipmaker to circumvent the sanctions imposed by the US government. These sanctions are intended to restrict Beijing's capabilities, but they could also be detrimental to American companies that rely on the Chinese market.
In August, Nvidia and AMD said they had received notification letters from the US Commerce Department directing them to halt exporting their most sophisticated chips to China, arguing that they could be used in artificial intelligence systems.
Nvidia said the new directive would affect exports of its A100 and future H100 chips, which are designed to speed up machine learning processes. The company also said the US government is demanding a new licence, effective immediately, to address the risks that the covered products may be utilised in, or diverted to, a 'military end user' in China.
Nvidia anticipates around $400m in sales to China will be impacted if customers decline to purchase the company's alternative product offerings or if the US government does not grant licences in a timely manner.
An Nvidia spokesperson described the new A800 GPU as "another alternative product to the Nvidia A100 GPU for customers in China."
"The A800 meets the US government's clear test for reduced export control and cannot be programmed to exceed it," the spokesperson added.
The A800 chip went into production in Q3. It is available in products from major server manufacturers on at least two Chinese websites. In the past, promotional materials for one of those products included the A100 chip.
The A800's specs were described in full on a distributor website in China. The new processor's chip-to-chip data transmission rate is 400 gigabytes per second, down from the A100's 600 gigabytes per second.
The updated US export regulations limit speeds to 600 gigabytes per second.
Nvidia is not the only company deliberately slowing down the performance of its processors in order to avoid US sanctions.
Chinese chip designers are also slowing their advanced chips
The Financial Times reports that Alibaba and the startup Biren Technology are also altering their most cutting-edge chip designs to slow down their processors.
Since China lacks the capacity to build its own advanced chips, Alibaba, Biren and some other Chinese chip designers have invested millions of dollars on designing sophisticated chips that were intended to be built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). However, the US sanctions have put a crimp in their plans.
The FT said that when the US announced the new trade regulations, Alibaba and Biren had already carried out costly test runs of their latest chips at TSMC. The new restrictions are now forcing both firms to halt further production and tweak their designs.
A Biren engineer told the FT that the company is attempting to change its designs and reduce processing speeds in the hopes that TSMC would still be able to produce them.