QuietBox 2: The RISC-V AI Frontier

Jim Keller’s Tenstorrent has officially launched the QuietBox™ 2, a liquid-cooled desktop AI workstation that represents a major milestone for the RISC-V ecosystem. Starting at $9,999, the system is designed to provide "teraflop-class inference" without the dependency on proprietary CUDA stacks.

Blackhole™ Architecture at the Desk

At the heart of the QuietBox 2 is the Blackhole™ processor, Tenstorrent's latest RISC-V design. Unlike traditional GPU setups, Blackhole is optimized for the sparse matrix operations common in modern transformer models. The system is capable of running 120B parameter models locally with significant throughput, making it a powerful tool for researchers prioritizing data privacy.

Open-Source from Compiler to Kernel

A key selling point for the QuietBox 2 is its commitment to transparency. The entire software stack—from the BUDA compiler to the underlying kernel—is open-source. This allows developers to tune the hardware for specific model architectures without fighting "black box" driver limitations.

• Local Inference: Run GPT-OSS and Llama-4 variants with zero latency and full privacy.
• Liquid Cooled: Designed for sustained 24/7 AI training and inference at 35dB.
• Expandability: Supports multi-chip scaling via Tenstorrent's proprietary interconnects.