[MarkusQ]

I'm still waiting for the update that explains why, after going from clock speed to FLOPS, etc. (which I understood) we suddenly started measuring processing power in GW. It makes as much sense as measuring automotive motors in decibels.

[hephaes7us]

Speaking in terms of GW makes sense when we are discussing performance of an individual datacenter since power is, kind of, the limiting factor.

Also, FLOPs per watt hasn't changed as much lately, so thinking in terms of watts over a few-year time horizon does at least give you a ballpark of how many FLOPs.

If you're talking about a chip, you obviously want to know about FLOPs moreso, but, even down to the level of individual rack-units, wattage is a serious concern. Not every facility is built for these crazy 200kW racks.

[MarkusQ]

Yeah, I get that. But using something that should be on the "costs" side of the ledger as your metric still seems fraught. It feels like another LOC trap.