GPUs power AI, graphics, scientific computing, and an increasing share of modern software. Many projects focus on making GPU programming in Rust possible. This talk asks a different question: how do we make GPU programming feel native to Rust?
Christian Legnitto, founder and CEO of VectorWare, explores what it would take to make GPUs feel natural extension of the Rust language and ecosystem. The talk covers the challenges and design tradeoffs involved in bringing Rust's ownership model, type system, and abstractions to heterogeneous systems. It also looks at compiler architecture, intermediate representations (IRs), runtimes, and the fundamental differences between CPU and GPU execution.
Attendees will leave with a framework for thinking about how GPU and CPU software interact, an understanding of today's tradeoffs, and a vision for how Rust can make heterogeneous programming feel like ordinary systems programming.
Christian Legnitto is the founder of VectorWare, the first GPU-native software company. Previously he worked at Apple, Mozilla, Facebook, and Robinhood.
