Sipeed's MaixStation claims 256 TOPS beats DGX Spark's "paper" 1,000 TOPS in real INT8 tests
AIFlow_ML · x · 2026-10-19
Sipeed launched MaixStation, a local-AI machine taking direct aim at NVIDIA's DGX Spark:
- Specs: AX8860P chip (256 TOPS FP4), 128GB LPDDR5X at 273 GB/s, 40W, just 363 cm³ (about 1/3 of DGX Spark), running models from 27B to 552B
- Pricing jab: DGX Spark cost $3,999 a year ago, $6,999 today, with the new 64GB model pricier than the old 128GB; MaixStation offers a $100 reservation
- Core claim: DGX Spark's "1,000 TOPS" is sparse FP4 that real models can't use; in pure-compute INT8 CNN tests the "1000T" Spark runs at roughly half the FPS of the "256T" AX8860P — even the 18 TOPS AX8850N hits half — calling out TOPS marketing
- The site lists Qwen3-family FP4 prefill/decode throughput comparisons, labeled conservative measurements while the chip is still being tuned
The poster says they plan to get the 512GB version.
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