←back to thread

Apple's MLX adding CUDA support

(github.com)
548 points nsagent | 4 comments | 14 Jul 25 21:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.757s | source
Show context
lukev ◴[15 Jul 25 02:18 UTC] No.44567263[source]▶
So to make sure I understand, this would mean:

1. Programs built against MLX -> Can take advantage of CUDA-enabled chips

but not:

2. CUDA programs -> Can now run on Apple Silicon.

Because the #2 would be a copyright violation (specifically with respect to NVidia's famous moat).

Is this correct?

replies(9): >>44567309 #>>44567350 #>>44567355 #>>44567600 #>>44567699 #>>44568060 #>>44568194 #>>44570427 #>>44577999 #
saagarjha ◴[15 Jul 25 02:28 UTC] No.44567309[source]▶
No, it's because doing 2 would be substantially harder.
replies(2): >>44567356 #>>44567414 #
lukev ◴[15 Jul 25 02:39 UTC] No.44567356[source]▶
There's a massive financial incentive (billions) to allow existing CUDA code to run on non-NVidia hardware. Not saying it's easy, but is implementation difficulty really the blocker?
replies(5): >>44567393 #>>44567539 #>>44568123 #>>44573767 #>>44574809 #
saagarjha ◴[15 Jul 25 02:45 UTC] No.44567393[source]▶
Yes. See: AMD
replies(1): >>44567420 #
1. lukev ◴[15 Jul 25 02:49 UTC] No.44567420[source]▶
AMD has never implemented the CUDA API. And not for technical reasons.
replies(1): >>44567444 #
2. gpm ◴[15 Jul 25 02:54 UTC] No.44567444[source]▶
They did, or at least they paid someone else to.

https://www.techpowerup.com/319016/amd-develops-rocm-based-s...

replies(2): >>44568534 #>>44579527 #
3. Imustaskforhelp ◴[15 Jul 25 06:45 UTC] No.44568534[source]▶
But I think then there was some lawsuit and the rocm guy/team had gone really ahead but amd dropped it because of either fear of lawsuit or lawsuit in general.

Then, now they had to stop working on some part of the source code and had to rewrite a lot of things again, they are still not as close to as they were before amd lawyer shenanigan

4. pjmlp ◴[16 Jul 25 07:06 UTC] No.44579527[source]▶
Partially, the CUDA C++ API, not CUDA APIs.