[HN Gopher] Apple's MLX adding CUDA support
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       Apple's MLX adding CUDA support
        
       Author : nsagent
       Score  : 44 points
       Date   : 2025-07-14 21:40 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | gsibble wrote:
       | Awesome
        
       | nxobject wrote:
       | If you're going "wait, no Apple platform has first-party CUDA
       | support!", note that this set of patches also adds support for
       | "Linux [platforms] with CUDA 12 and SM 7.0 (Volta) and up".
       | 
       | https://ml-explore.github.io/mlx/build/html/install.html
        
       | teaearlgraycold wrote:
       | I wonder if Jensen is scared. If this opens up the door to other
       | implementations this could be a real threat to Nvidia. CUDA on
       | AMD, CUDA on Intel, etc. Might we see actual competition?
        
         | jsight wrote:
         | I think this is the other way around. It won't be cuda on
         | anything except for nvidia.
         | 
         | However, this might make mlx into a much stronger competitor
         | for Pytorch.
        
           | teaearlgraycold wrote:
           | Oh bummer. Almost got excited.
        
           | baby_souffle wrote:
           | If you implement compatible apis, are you prohibited from
           | calling it cuda?
        
             | moralestapia wrote:
             | I'm sure I saw this lawsuit somewhere ...
             | 
             | The gist is the API specification in itself is copyright,
             | so it is copyright infringement then.
        
               | wyldfire wrote:
               | Too subtle - was this oracle vs java one? Remind me: java
               | won or lost that one?
        
             | 15155 wrote:
             | Considering 100% of the low-level CUDA API headers have the
             | word "CUDA" in them, this would be interesting to know.
        
         | almostgotcaught wrote:
         | > CUDA backend
         | 
         |  _backend_
        
         | tekacs wrote:
         | This instance is the other way around, but that's what this is
         | - CUDA on AMD (or other platforms): https://docs.scale-
         | lang.com/stable/
        
       | zdw wrote:
       | How does this work when one of the key features of MLX is using a
       | unified memory architecture? (see bullets on repo readme:
       | https://github.com/ml-explore/mlx )
       | 
       | I would think that bringing that to all UMA APUs (of any vendor)
       | would be interesting, but discreet GPU's definitely would need a
       | different approach?
       | 
       | edit: reading the PR comments, it appears that CUDA supports a
       | UMA API directly, and will transparently copy as needed.
        
       | nerdsniper wrote:
       | Edit: I had the details of the Google v Oracle case wrong. SCOTUS
       | found that re-implementing an API does not infringe copyright. I
       | was remembering the first and second appellate rulings.
       | 
       | Also apparently this is not a re-implementation of CUDA.
        
         | skyde wrote:
         | this is CUDA backend to MLX not MLX backend for CUDA!
        
         | liuliu wrote:
         | You misunderstood and this is not re-implementing CUDA API.
         | 
         | MLX is a PyTorch-like framework.
        
         | Uehreka wrote:
         | This is exactly the kind of thing I wouldn't opine on until
         | like, an actual lawyer weighs in after thoroughly researching
         | it. There are just too many shades of meaning in this kind of
         | case law for laymen to draw actionable conclusions directly
         | from the opinions.
         | 
         | Though I imagine that if Apple is doing this themselves, they
         | likely know what they're doing, whatever it is.
        
       | MuffinFlavored wrote:
       | Is this for Mac's with NVIDIA cards in them or Apple Metal/Apple
       | Silicon speaking CUDA?... I can't really tell.
        
         | cowsandmilk wrote:
         | Neither, it is for Linux computers with NVIDIA cards
        
       | Keyframe wrote:
       | Now do linux support / drivers for Mac hardware!
        
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       (page generated 2025-07-14 23:00 UTC)