Tenstorrent downgrading Blackhole p150 cards from 140 to 120 tensor cores via firmware update — will ship cards with 120 tensor cores going forward company claims users should expect 1-2% perf drop

Unlike many startups producing nothing but vaporware, Jim Keller’s TensTorrent has actually delivered impressive-looking RISC-V AI accelerators, but there could be some trouble brewing. Starting with firmware version 19.5.0, the firm has now chopped the tensor core count on Blackhole p150 cards from 140 to 120, affecting both new cards and existing units already in customers’ hands.

The news was apparently communicated to customers via email, with the same wording present on the firmware update’s GitHub page. Tenstorrent isn’t elaborating on why the change was made, leaving existing and potential buyers scratching their heads