Tiny company steals AMD's thunder and challenges Nvidia with old-tech PCIe AI accelerator that runs 700B LLMs locally, sipping just 240W thanks to decade-old DDR4 and 28nm chips

Date:
Sun, 10 May 2026 20:35:00 +0000

Description:
Skymizer introduced a low power PCIe AI accelerator using older chips and LPDDR memory for massive language model inference.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Skymizer claims giant AI models no longer need hyperscale GPU infrastructure Old 28nm chips suddenly power massive language models at surprisingly low wattage The HTX301 squeezes 384
GB of memory into a single PCIe accelerator card A Taiwanese company called Skymizer has unveiled a PCIe AI accelerator that challenges both AMD and Nvidia using surprisingly old technology.

The HTX301 card can run language models with up to 700 billion parameters on
a single device while consuming only 240 watts of power. The card achieves this feat using older 28-nanometer chips and standard LPDDR4 and LPDDR5
memory instead of expensive HBM or GDDR solutions. Latest Videos From You may like The AI data centers of 2036 wont be filled with GPUs: FuriosaAIs CEO on the future of silicon No Nvidia, No AMD, No Intel, No ARM: Meta plans inference-led RISC-y future without friends as 1700w superchip emerges with
30 PFLOPs performance and half Terabyte (yes 512GB) HBM Huawei Launches Atlas 350 AI Accelerator to Compete with Nvidia H20 Old tech chip competes with modern AI accelerators Skymizer claims its card delivers 30 tokens per second with just 0.5 TOPS at 100 GB per second bandwidth.

The HTX301 is built on Skymizer's HyperThought platform, which features next-generation LPU IP designed specifically for large language model workloads.

Each PCIe card contains six HTX301 chips working together, and the card
offers up to 384 GB of total memory capacity.

The design uses efficient compression techniques for both weights and KV cache, outperforming open source llama.cpp by 9 to 17.8 percent. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
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Its power consumption sits at less than half of what leading PCIe AI accelerators from AMD and NVIDIA typically require.

The card supports agentic AI for coding, automation, and domain-specific workflows without needing hyperscale GPU clusters.

Running large language models in the cloud introduces privacy concerns and unpredictable costs that many organizations find unacceptable. What to read next GMKTec demos Openclaw-capable mini PC that reaches 180 TOPS AMD's new Ryzen AI 400 CPUs prioritize AI skills over GPU power MSI (re)launches
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Upgrading on-premises infrastructure to support massive GPU accelerator platforms often requires expensive redesigns of data center power and cooling systems.

Skymizer's HTX301 offers enterprises a third option that fits into standard air-cooled servers without any infrastructure changes.

The company claims the era of needing hyperscale GPU clusters for ultra-large LLMs is over with their new technology.

The PCIe card form factor allows businesses to scale AI inference on premises while maintaining data sovereignty and predictable infrastructure costs. Skymizer HTX301 awaits real-world testing Skymizer will preview the HTX301 at Computex this year, allowing independent verification of its performance numbers.

The specifications of this chip look impressive on paper, but real-world testing will determine whether the card actually delivers 240 tokens per second on Llama2 7B workloads.

AMD recently launched its Instinct MI350P PCIe card with 144 GB of HBM3E memory and up to 4,600 peak TFLOPS at MXFP4 precision, yet it consumes considerably more power than Skymizer's offering.

Nvidia's RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell consumes roughly 600 watts, more than double what Skymizer's card requires for comparable inference tasks.

Should the HTX301 work as advertised, it could dramatically lower the barrier to entry for on-premises AI infrastructure.

Failure to deliver would place Skymizer among the many startups that could
not back up their promises.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/tiny-company-steals-amds-thunder-and-challenges- nvidia-with-old-tech-pcie-ai-accelerator-that-runs-700b-llms-locally-sipping-j ust-240w-thanks-to-decade-old-ddr4-and-28nm-chips


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