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Do ML people actually care about DirectX? I thought everyone is using CUDA? Anyway in my university building I have not seen anyone that does machine learning o

by Mic92 6y ago

Do ML people actually care about DirectX? I thought everyone is using CUDA? Anyway in my university building I have not seen anyone that does machine learning on Windows.

modeless 6y ago
CUDA is supported as well.
raphlinus 6y ago
Yes, (almost) everybody doing machine learning is on CUDA. There are multiple pieces of this work, and the DirectX API's are only part of it. Other pieces get CUDA running as well. And yet another piece is a layer to get OpenGL and OpenCL workloads running on DX12 as well, rather similar in scope to how MoltenVK and the gfx-hal Vulkan Portability work are a layer to get Vulkan workloads running on Metal. This is a big effort, and it seems to me their goal is to get things to the point where stuff Just Works and you don't have to think too hard about the various bits of (technically difficult!) infrastructure to get you there.
cududa 6y ago
A bit of a tip, your university development experience is not going to be like anything you see in production
anaisbetts 6y ago
They typically don't - the team published both a special build of Tensorflow that uses DirectX, as well as working with nVidia to get CUDA running against their DX Linux kernel implementation
- lostmsu 6y ago
  > special build of Tensorflow that uses DirectX Huh? Are you sure about that? Regular TensorFlow on Windows uses CUDA, not DirectX-flavored compute.
  - raphlinus 6y ago
    I was also surprised, but found this RFC for TensorFlow on top of DirectML: https://github.com/tensorflow/community/pull/243 https://github.com/tensorflow/community/pull/243
    - lostmsu 6y ago
      Oh well, I think that will take several years to land.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
numpad0 6y ago
In ML if you decide not to kiss NVIDIA's ass you're screwed. Figuratively they have 100% market share. Having major alternative backend, even if it's proprietary, will force diversity and that has some upsides I think.

by Mic92 6y ago

Do ML people actually care about DirectX? I thought everyone is using CUDA? Anyway in my university building I have not seen anyone that does machine learning on Windows.

modeless 6y ago

CUDA is supported as well.

raphlinus 6y ago

Yes, (almost) everybody doing machine learning is on CUDA. There are multiple pieces of this work, and the DirectX API's are only part of it. Other pieces get CUDA running as well. And yet another piece is a layer to get OpenGL and OpenCL workloads running on DX12 as well, rather similar in scope to how MoltenVK and the gfx-hal Vulkan Portability work are a layer to get Vulkan workloads running on Metal. This is a big effort, and it seems to me their goal is to get things to the point where stuff Just Works and you don't have to think too hard about the various bits of (technically difficult!) infrastructure to get you there.

cududa 6y ago

A bit of a tip, your university development experience is not going to be like anything you see in production

anaisbetts 6y ago

They typically don't - the team published both a special build of Tensorflow that uses DirectX, as well as working with nVidia to get CUDA running against their DX Linux kernel implementation

lostmsu 6y ago
> special build of Tensorflow that uses DirectX Huh? Are you sure about that? Regular TensorFlow on Windows uses CUDA, not DirectX-flavored compute.
- raphlinus 6y ago
  I was also surprised, but found this RFC for TensorFlow on top of DirectML: https://github.com/tensorflow/community/pull/243 https://github.com/tensorflow/community/pull/243
  - lostmsu 6y ago
    Oh well, I think that will take several years to land.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

numpad0 6y ago

In ML if you decide not to kiss NVIDIA's ass you're screwed. Figuratively they have 100% market share. Having major alternative backend, even if it's proprietary, will force diversity and that has some upsides I think.