CPUs, GPUs, and accelerators: The chips powering AI

A CPU, or central processing unit, is like the brain of a computer, handling all the general tasks needed to run software and operating systems. AI accelerator chips, like AWS Trainium and GPUs (graphics processing units), excel at parallel computing tasks, including training and deploying AI models. Unlike GPUs—which are more flexible for a range of tasks—AWS Trainium chips are designed from the ground up specifically for AI workloads. This purpose-built design helps them deliver even greater performance and efficiency than general-purpose GPUs for training and running large language models.