The open source CUDA implementation ZLUDA has been taken offline
- August 8, 2024
- 0
The Zluda project, which brings CUDA compatibility to AMD, has been taken offline. Earlier this year, ZLUDA appeared as an open source project, but now the creator is
The Zluda project, which brings CUDA compatibility to AMD, has been taken offline. Earlier this year, ZLUDA appeared as an open source project, but now the creator is forced to remove the code. Remarkably, Nvidia is not the reason for this.
In February, ZLUDA appeared online as an open source project. Now ZLUDA has disappeared again, and not to the developer’s liking. He said he was pressured to take ZLUDA offline, not by Nvidia, but by AMD.
This is somewhat surprising. ZLUDA is an implementation of Nvidia CUDA designed for AMD GPUs. Software developed for CUDA also runs accelerated on AMD GPUs. AMD supported the ZLUDA project financially for a while with the goal of integrating ZLUDA into the competing ROCm platform, but these plans were shelved a few months ago.
Consent or not
Developer Andrej Janik persevered and received permission from AMD via email to make the project available as open source. According to Janik, AMD is now withdrawing this permission and stating that previous emails are not legally binding. ZLUDA must disappear from GitHub for the time being.
In the words of Janik on Github:
“What happened:
The code previously posted here was removed at AMD’s request. The code was posted via email with AMD’s consent. AMD’s legal department now says it is not legally binding, hence the reversal. Before anyone asks: I have not received any legal threats or communications from Nvidia.
What now:
Right now, a single enemy company doesn’t make much of a difference. I plan to rebuild ZLUDA from the pre-AMD codebase. Funding for the project is underway and I hope to share details in the coming weeks. It will be a different scope and certain features will not return. I wanted it to be a surprise, but one of those features was Nvidia GameWorks support. I got it working in Batman: Arkham Knight, but I never finished it and now that code will never see the light of day.”
Nvidia CUDA remains dominant for now and an alternative implementation of CUDA on AMD is no longer available due to AMD itself.
Source: IT Daily
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