Seek .(US:SKLTY) 3 6 Ke·2025-12-15 00:36Core Insights - vLLM has rapidly become a preferred inference engine for global tech companies, with GitHub stars increasing from 40,000 to 65,000 in just over a year, driven by the open-source PagedAttention technology [1] - Neural Magic played a crucial role in vLLM's success, utilizing a "free platform + open-source tools" strategy to build a robust enterprise-level inference stack and maintain a library of pre-optimized models [1] - Red Hat's acquisition of Neural Magic in November 2024, including key team members like Michael Goin, is expected to enhance vLLM's competitive edge in the AI large model sector [1][2] Development and Optimization - The vLLM core team, led by Michael Goin, has shifted focus from optimizing Llama models to enhancing features related to the DeepSeek model, particularly with the release of DeepSeek R1 [3] - The development cycle for version 0.7.2 was tight, efficiently supporting Qwen 2.5 VL and introducing a Transformers backend for running Hugging Face models [3] - Version 0.7.3 marked a significant update with numerous contributors involved, enhancing DeepSeek with multi-token prediction and MLA attention optimizations, as well as expanding support for AMD hardware [4] Hardware Compatibility and Ecosystem - The vLLM team is committed to building an open and efficient hardware inference ecosystem, supporting various mainstream chips and collaborating closely with hardware teams like NVIDIA and AMD [8] - The integration of PyTorch as a foundational layer allows vLLM to support a wide range of hardware, simplifying the adaptation process for hardware vendors [10][11] - The team's collaboration with hardware partners ensures that vLLM can maintain high performance across different platforms, with a focus on optimizing the architecture for new hardware like the Blackwell chip [8][9] Multi-Modal Capabilities - vLLM has evolved from a text-only inference engine to a unified service platform supporting multi-modal generation and understanding, including text, images, audio, and video [17][19] - The introduction of multi-modal prefix caching significantly improves efficiency in processing various input types, while the decoupling of encoders enhances resource utilization for large-scale inference [18][19] - The release of vLLM-Omni marks a milestone in multi-modal inference, allowing for seamless integration and resource allocation across different modalities [19][21] Community and Feedback Loop - The growing trend of companies contributing modifications back to the upstream vLLM project reflects a positive feedback loop driven by the speed of community version iterations [22][23] - Collaboration with leading model labs and companies enables rapid feedback collection, ensuring that vLLM remains competitive and aligned with industry developments [23][24] - The vLLM team is actively addressing developer concerns, such as startup speed, by implementing tracking projects and optimizing performance through community engagement [24][25] Strategic Positioning - Red Hat's deep involvement in vLLM is rooted in the strategic understanding that inference is a critical component of AI application costs, aiming to integrate cutting-edge model optimizations [26][27] - The governance structure of vLLM is decentralized, with contributions from multiple organizations, allowing Red Hat to influence the project while adhering to open-source principles [26][27] - The collaboration with the PyTorch team has led to significant improvements in supporting new hardware and models, reinforcing vLLM's position as a standard in inference services [27]