LGMay 18, 2022Code
Torchhd: An Open Source Python Library to Support Research on Hyperdimensional Computing and Vector Symbolic ArchitecturesMike Heddes, Igor Nunes, Pere Vergés et al.
Hyperdimensional computing (HD), also known as vector symbolic architectures (VSA), is a framework for computing with distributed representations by exploiting properties of random high-dimensional vector spaces. The commitment of the scientific community to aggregate and disseminate research in this particularly multidisciplinary area has been fundamental for its advancement. Joining these efforts, we present Torchhd, a high-performance open source Python library for HD/VSA. Torchhd seeks to make HD/VSA more accessible and serves as an efficient foundation for further research and application development. The easy-to-use library builds on top of PyTorch and features state-of-the-art HD/VSA functionality, clear documentation, and implementation examples from well-known publications. Comparing publicly available code with their corresponding Torchhd implementation shows that experiments can run up to 100x faster. Torchhd is available at: https://github.com/hyperdimensional-computing/torchhd.
DCNov 4, 2025
Eliminating Multi-GPU Performance Taxes: A Systems Approach to Efficient Distributed LLMsOctavian Alexandru Trifan, Karthik Sangaiah, Muhammad Awad et al.
As large language models (LLMs) continue to scale, their workloads increasingly rely on distributed execution across multiple GPUs. However, the conventional bulk synchronous parallel~(BSP) model used in such settings introduces significant performance inefficiencies. To characterize these bottlenecks, we introduce the ''Three Taxes'' (Bulk Synchronous, Inter-Kernel Data Locality, and Kernel Launch Overhead) as an analytical framework. We propose moving beyond the rigid BSP model to address key inefficiencies in distributed GPU execution. By exploiting libraries like Iris for Triton, we gain access to in-kernel communication primitives that enable the design of novel fine-grained programming patterns, offering greater flexibility and performance than traditional BSP-based approaches. These patterns systematically eliminate the three taxes by creating direct, tile-level producer-consumer pipelines and replacing global barriers with fine-grained dataflow synchronization. Applying this methodology to critical kernels, from the foundational All-Gather + general matrix multiplication operation to the complex Flash Decode algorithm, we observe a 10-20% speedup in end-to-end latency over BSP-based approaches, establishing a more programmable and efficient paradigm for distributed LLM workloads.