Modular: What exactly is "CUDA"? (Democratizing AI Compute, Part 2)

AI Impact Summary

CUDA is far more than just a programming language or a framework; it’s a comprehensive platform built by NVIDIA to enable general-purpose computing on GPUs. This platform includes a low-level programming model, libraries like cuDNN and cuBLAS, and a driver that bridges the gap between the CPU and GPU. Understanding CUDA’s layered architecture – from the PTX assembly language to the high-level libraries – is critical for optimizing AI workloads and leveraging the full potential of NVIDIA GPUs, particularly given its historical role in accelerating deep learning frameworks like PyTorch and TensorFlow.