The software stack: from CUDA kernels to inference engines
The layers between a Python script and GPU silicon: drivers, CUDA, cuBLAS/cuDNN/CUTLASS, Triton and compilers, PyTorch eager versus graph modes and CUDA graphs, ONNX and TensorRT, and why engines exist. Includes how to read a profile.
14 min·Verified 2026-11Pro+50 XP
When someone says "vLLM is fast", the speed comes from many layers cooperating. Knowing the layers tells you where to look when something is slow and what each tool can and cannot fix.
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