Tag
#inference
Every story tagged inference, newest first.

Quantization Explained: What Q4, Q8, and FP16 Actually Do to a Local Model
Quantization shrinks AI model weights from 16-bit floats to 4- or 8-bit. Here is exactly what that trade-off costs you, and how to pick between Q4_K_M, Q8, and FP16 for the model you actually want to run, with an interactive memory calculator.
BitByteCore Silicon Desk · Aug 6, 2026 · 8 min read

Mixture-of-Experts Models: How They Work and Why They Cut Inference Costs
MoE models activate only a fraction of their parameters per token: DeepSeek-V3 fires 37B of 671B, delivering large-model quality at small-model compute cost. How routers, experts, and load balancing actually work, and where the savings are and are not real. With an interactive dense-vs-MoE view.
BitByteCore Silicon Desk · Aug 6, 2026 · 10 min read

How Much VRAM You Actually Need to Run a Local LLM
VRAM is the hard constraint on running a local LLM. Here's the real math — parameters, precision, quantization, KV cache — what fits on 8GB, 24GB, 32GB, and unified-memory machines, plus where quality and speed actually break.
BitByteCore AI Desk · Aug 5, 2026 · 7 min read

The Real Privacy Audit: What Data Your AI Coding Assistant Sends Home
Stop trusting privacy policies. Put your AI coding assistant behind a proxy and watch exactly what your code transmits — what fires on every keystroke, what "local mode" really hides, and how to shut the channel.
BitByteCore Security Desk · Aug 5, 2026 · 11 min read

The best local LLM runners in 2026: Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, and more
For most people the best local LLM runner in 2026 is still Ollama — free, cross-platform, out of your way. But LM Studio, vLLM, Apple MLX, llama.cpp, Jan, GPT4All, and Open WebUI each win a specific job. Here's which to pick — and what actually fits your GPU.
BitByteCore Research · Aug 4, 2026 · 9 min read
More stories
Guide · aiThe best cloud GPU providers for AI training in 2026Aug 3, 2026 · 11 min read
Guide · aiThe best Macs for local AI and machine learning in 2026Aug 2, 2026 · 11 min read
Guide · aiThe best cloud hosting for running AI models in 2026Aug 2, 2026 · 11 min read
Guide · aiThe best CPUs for AI development workstations in 2026Aug 1, 2026 · 13 min read
Article · chipsAI Inference on the Edge: How Embedded Chips in Cars, Cameras, and Appliances Actually WorkJul 29, 2026 · 12 min read
Article · aiModel Distillation: How Small Models Learn to Punch Above Their WeightJul 28, 2026 · 9 min read
Guide · aiThe best GPUs for running large language models locally in 2026Jun 20, 2026 · 10 min read