How to read this page. Each section starts Simple, then goes to a Deep dive: stop wherever you have what you need. The small numbers are sources: click one to open the original document. Where the maker has not published a figure -- a price, a die size, a factory address -- this page says so rather than estimate it.
1.At a glance
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WSE-2, launched 20 April 2021, more than doubled the first Wafer-Scale Engine’s core count — 2.6 trillion transistors and 850,000 cores on the same dinner-plate-sized wafer 1. Two years later it became the chip behind Condor Galaxy 1, a 4-exaFLOP AI supercomputer built with G42 of Abu Dhabi 2.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Cerebras’s CEO Andrew Feldman said the generational jump moved “about 2.3X on every performance dimension” 3. The chip moved to a smaller manufacturing process too — TSMC 7 nm, down from 16 nm on the first Wafer-Scale Engine (see that page on this site) 1 4.
2.Launch and history
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WSE-2 is the generation that proved Cerebras’s wafer-scale approach wasn’t a one-off: the same fundamental design — a whole silicon wafer as one chip — scaled to more than double the cores and memory two years after the first version shipped 1.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Its biggest deployment came from outside Cerebras’s own launch materials: Condor Galaxy 1, announced 20 July 2023 with G42, combined 64 CS-2 systems into what Cerebras called “a 4 exaFLOPS, 54 million core, 64-node AI supercomputer” 2.
3.What’s inside it
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850,000 AI-optimized cores — more than double the first generation’s 400,000 — linked by an upgraded on-wafer fabric 1 3.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Cerebras built in spare capacity for manufacturing defects from the start: EE Times reported the chip includes “1% redundant cores purely for this eventuality,” with Feldman saying wafer yields were “much, much higher than much smaller parts like the GPU” because defects are spread randomly across the wafer rather than clustered 3. Feldman did concede one harder case: a defect pattern that knocks out several adjacent cores at once, which he called “extraordinarily rare” but did not claim was solved by the redundant cores alone 3.
4.Full spec table
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| Spec | Cerebras WSE-2 |
|---|
| Transistors | 2.6 trillion 1 |
|---|
| Cores | 850,000 AI-optimized cores 1 |
|---|
| On-chip memory | 40 GB SRAM 3 |
|---|
| Memory bandwidth | 20 petabytes/s 3 |
|---|
| Fabric bandwidth | 220 petabits/s 3 |
|---|
| Chip size | More than 46,225 mm² 1 |
|---|
| Process node | TSMC 7 nm 1 |
|---|
Deep diveThe technical detail
Against the first Wafer-Scale Engine (see that page on this site): memory more than doubled, 18 GB to 40 GB, and memory bandwidth grew from 9 to 20 petabytes/s — while fabric bandwidth grew from 100 petabits/s to 220 petabits/s 3 4.
5.Where it’s made
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Designed by Cerebras; the wafer made by TSMC, now on a 7 nm process, up from 16 nm on the first generation 1 4.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Cerebras’s approach to manufacturing defects was explained publicly at this generation’s launch for the first time in the sources checked for this site: rather than discarding a wafer with a flaw, its on-chip network routes around bad cores, using the built-in 1% redundancy 3.
6.Which systems use it
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Sold as the CS-2 system. Its largest confirmed deployment: 64 CS-2 systems in Condor Galaxy 1, built with G42 of Abu Dhabi and announced 20 July 2023 2.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Condor Galaxy 1 launched in two phases — 32 CS-2 systems, then a second phase bringing the total to 64 — reaching a combined 4 exaFLOPS of AI training compute 2. It was Cerebras’s largest publicly named system built on this generation of chip.
7.Official pricing
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Not published by the company. Neither the April 2021 launch materials nor the Condor Galaxy 1 announcement give a CS-2 system price.
Deep diveThe technical detail
This matches every other Cerebras generation checked on this site: the company has never published a system list price, for CS-1, CS-2, CS-3 or CS-4 (see those pages on this site).
9.What came before, what came next
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Came before: WSE-1 (CS-1), covered on its own page on this site.
Came after: WSE-3 (CS-3), covered on its own page on this site.
Deep diveThe technical detail
WSE-2 shipped about 20 months after the first Wafer-Scale Engine’s August 2019 unveiling 1 4. WSE-3 followed nearly three years later, in March 2024 — a longer gap than the one between the first two generations 5.
10.Hidden in plain sight
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Condor Galaxy 1’s “54 million core” figure is simple multiplication, not a new design: 64 CS-2 systems at 850,000 cores each comes to 54.4 million cores, exactly matching Cerebras’s own published total 2 1.
Deep diveThe technical detail
EE Times reported Feldman saying Cerebras’s strategy “began with the assumption we would face flaws” in the silicon — in other words, the same fault-tolerant philosophy behind the first Wafer-Scale Engine, made explicit and quantified (1% redundant cores) for the first time at this generation’s launch 3.