TPU pod
Google's tensor processing unit arranged in a cluster—thousands of TPUs connected for training billion-parameter models.
Think of it like
A skyscraper of specialized processors—each floor is a TPU, elevator is the interconnect.
Example
A TPU v4 pod has 4,096 TPUs. Google trains PaLM and Gemini on TPU pods. Extremely expensive, extremely fast for matrix ops.
How it actually works
TPU pods are specialized for tensor operations but less flexible than GPUs (harder to program). Google uses them for its own models but doesn't sell pods directly to researchers. Access via Colab free tier (limited), GCP (expensive), or research grants.
For product teams
Differentiates Google's capabilities; high moat because it's proprietary.
For engineers
Optimized for dense matrix ops; custom Google software stack.
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