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Equation 10 · Part 6 · Comparing the Main Approaches to AI Inference Economics

multiplication

Pr<u⋅Pd,i.e.u>PrPd≡u∗.P_r < u \cdot P_d, \qquad \text{i.e.} \qquad u > \frac{P_r}{P_d} \equiv u^{*}.
multiplication

What this part means

Multiply the quantities on either side.

Its job in the formula

Multiply the quantities on either side.

The passage around this formula

Here the break-even arithmetic is genuinely simple, and worth writing down, because it is the one place in this comparison where a clean model — not a ranking of vendors — is possible. Let a reserved commitment cost PrP_r per accelerator-hour, and let the on-demand or serverless rate that would otherwise serve the same throughput cost PdP_d per accelerator-hour at full utilization. If the buyer’s realized utilization of the reserved capacity is u ∈\in (0, 1] , the reserved option is cheaper exactly when Pr<u⋅Pd,i.e.u>PrPd≡u∗P_r < u \cdot P_d, \qquad \text{i.e.} \qquad u > \frac{P_r}{P_d} \equiv u^{*}. Below the break-even utilization u∗u^{*} , paying on demand only for the hours actually used is cheaper than holding a reservation that sits partly idle; above it, the…

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Learn the underlying idea

Multiplication scales one quantity by another. A dot, a cross, or adjacent symbols can indicate a product.

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Sources cited in the article section

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