Challenges and Research Directions for Large Language Model Inference Hardware
2026/01/08 by Xiaoyu Ma, David Patterson · 13 voices · 1 citation
Computer Science · Materials Science · #Advanced Neural Network Applications #Machine Learning in Materials Science #Big Data and Digital Economy
paper · pdf · doi:10.1109/mc.2026.3652916
Abstract
Large Language Model (LLM) inference is hard. The autoregressive Decode phase of the underlying Transformer model makes LLM inference fundamentally different from training. Exacerbated by recent AI trends, the primary challenges are memory and interconnect rather than compute. To address these challenges, we highlight four architecture research opportunities: High Bandwidth Flash for 10X memory capacity with HBM-like bandwidth; Processing-Near-Memory and 3D memory-logic stacking for high memory bandwidth; and low-latency interconnect to speedup communication. While our focus is datacenter AI, we also review their applicability for mobile devices.
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Discussions
- Challenges and Research Directions for Large Language Model Inference Hardware [hn, 123 points, 23 comments]
- David Patterson & Xiaoyu Ma (Google) have written a new paper in which they argue why LLM inference is not just about compute but has its own distinct hardware challenges, while proposing four promisi [bsky, 9 points, 1 comments]
- => Challenges and Research Directions for Large Language Model Inference Hardware, X. Ma, David Patterson, Google, arXiv, Jan 8, 2026 arxiv.org/abs/2601.05047 4 Research Opportunities to Re-Think HBF [bsky, 2 points, 1 comments]
- Challenges and Research Directions for Large Language Model Inference Hardware [hn, 2 points, 0 comments]
- www.arxiv.org/abs/2601.05047 h/t www.hackster.io/shahizat/ [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- LLMと呼ばれる、大規模言語モデルの処理に使うハードウェアについて、研究者の方が講演したそうです。 この分野には、まだまだ解決すべき課題がたくさんあるとのこと。今後の研究の方向性についても語られたようです。興味深い内容ですね。 arxiv.org #news [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- ⚡ Hackernews Top story: David Patterson: Challenges and Research Directions for LLM Inference Hardware [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- Challenges and Research Directions for Large Language Model Inference Hardware https:// arxiv.org/abs/2601.05047 # arxiv [mastodon, 0 points, 0 comments]
- David Patterson: Challenges and Research Directions for LLM Inference Hardware #HackerNews https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05047 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- David Patterson: Challenges and Research Directions for LLM Inference Hardware https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05047 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46750214) [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- Challenges and Research Directions for Large Language Model Inference Hardware https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46750214 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- David Patterson: Challenges and Research Directions for LLM Inference Hardware https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05047 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- David Patterson: Challenges and Research Directions for LLM Inference Hardware https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05047 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46750214) [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
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