What is TOPS in computing?

TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second) is a metric used to measure the performance of AI hardware, particularly Neural Processing Units (NPUs), GPUs, and AI accelerators. It represents the number of trillions of operations a system can perform per second.

TOPS is commonly used to evaluate AI-specific performance, especially for tasks like inference operations, where NPUs are optimized for parallel processing and lower power consumption. However, while TOPS provides a quick reference for AI hardware speed, real-world performance also depends on factors like memory bandwidth, latency, and software optimization.