[HN Gopher] Next-Gen GPU Programming: Hands-On with Mojo and Max...
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       Next-Gen GPU Programming: Hands-On with Mojo and Max Modular HQ
        
       Author : solarmist
       Score  : 35 points
       Date   : 2025-04-25 18:32 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | solarmist wrote:
       | I'm really hoping Modular.ai takes off. GPU programming seems
       | like a nightmare, I'm not surprised they felt the need to build
       | an entire new language to tackle that bog.
        
         | mirsadm wrote:
         | GPU programming isn't really that bad. I am a bit skeptical
         | this is the way to solve it. The issue is that details do
         | matter when you're writing stuff on the GPU. How much shared
         | memory are you using? How is it scheduled? Is it better to
         | inline or run multiple passes etc. Halide is the closest I
         | think.
        
           | solarmist wrote:
           | What are you skeptical of? I believe the problem this is
           | solving is a framework that's not CUDA that allows low level
           | access to the hardware, makes it easy to write kernels, and
           | is not Nvidia only. If you watch the video you can write
           | directly in asm if you need to. You have full control if you
           | want it. But it provides primitives and higher level objects
           | that handle common cases.
           | 
           | I'm a novice in the area, but Chris is well respected in this
           | area and cares a lot of about performance.
        
         | pjmlp wrote:
         | There are already plenty of languages in CUDA world, that is
         | one reasons it is favoured.
         | 
         | The problem isn't the language, rather how to design the data
         | structures and algorithms for GPUs.
        
           | solarmist wrote:
           | Not sure I fully understand your comment, but I'm pretty sure
           | the talk addresses exactly that.
           | 
           | The primitives and pre-coded kernels provided by CUDA (it
           | solves for the most common scenarios first and foremost) is
           | what's holding things back and in order to get those
           | algorithms and data structures down to the hardware level you
           | need something flexible that can talk directly to the
           | hardware.
        
             | pjmlp wrote:
             | C, C++, Fortran, Python JIT from NVidia, plus Haskell,
             | .NET, Java, Futuhark, Julia from third parties, and
             | anything else that can bother to create a backend targeting
             | PTX, NVVM IR, or now cuTile.
             | 
             | The pre-coded kernels help a lot, but you don't have to use
             | them necessarly.
        
       | diabllicseagull wrote:
       | It is a noble cause. I've spent ten years of my life using CUDA
       | professionally, outside the AI domain mind you. Most of these
       | years, there was a strong desire to break off of CUDA and the
       | associated Nvidia tax on our customers. But one thing we didn't
       | want was to move from depending on CUDA to depending on another
       | intermediary which would also mean financial drain, like the
       | enterprise licensing these folks want to use. Sadly, open source
       | alternatives weren't fostering much confidence, either with their
       | limited feature coverage or just not knowing if they will be
       | supported in the long term (support for new hardware, fixes,
       | etc.).
        
       | catapart wrote:
       | My mistake completely, but I thought this was going to be
       | something to do with a new scheme or re-thinking of graphics
       | programming APIs, like Metal, Vulkan or OpenGL. Now I'm kind of
       | bummed that it is what it is, because I got really excited for it
       | to be that other thing. =(
        
         | pjmlp wrote:
         | That is already taking place with work graphs, and making
         | shader languages more C++ like.
        
         | ttoinou wrote:
         | Seems like with it you will be able to compile and execute one
         | code on multiple GPU targets though
        
       | ashvardanian wrote:
       | There is a "hush-hush open secret" between minutes 31 and 33 of
       | the video :)
        
         | refulgentis wrote:
         | TL;Dr same binary runs on Nvidia and ATI today, but not
         | announced yet
        
       | throwaway314155 wrote:
       | They desperately need to disable whatever noise cancellation
       | they're using on the audio. Keeps cutting out, sounds terrible.
        
         | solarmist wrote:
         | Yeah, the mic quality was terrible.
        
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       (page generated 2025-04-25 23:01 UTC)