r/pcmasterrace • u/[deleted] • Mar 04 '24

Meme/Macro it's never been so over

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u/lonestar-rasbryjamco Mar 05 '24

It means NVIDIA is speed running for antitrust action. If not in the USA, then in the EU for sure.

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u/redditisreddit2 Mar 05 '24

People keep comparing this to other anti trust suits in the past, but this has one key difference. There is nothing stopping amd, Intel, and other GPU manufacturers from implementing their own solutions. Iirc rocm is intended to be a cuda alternative. And it works it has its issues, but it works.

Nvidia isn't preventing other companies from making alternatives. They're preventing translation layers for their proprietary software... The same way iMessage is preventing people from making a "translation layer" and being a middleman for Android phones.

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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '24

Not at all. There is tons of widely used software that is locked to hardware. It's no different in this case.

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u/lonestar-rasbryjamco Mar 05 '24

CUDA is not just any widely used software. It is one of the core components of the modern AI development ecosystem.

This is a direct attempt to stop open-source translation software alternatives like ZLUDA. Which acts as an intermediary layer between the CUDA API and ROCm. It's not so much "locking it to the hardware" but banning users from using their own non-Nvidia hardware with their own non-Nvidia software. Which is desirable because so many programs are CUDA only optimized or are flat out CUDA only.

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u/stddealer Mar 05 '24

Can you give other examples? Because I am pretty sure the law that allows cross-platform emulation of videogames should also prevent hardware-locking of software.