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Software Engineer Runs Generative AI on 20-Year-Old PowerBook G4

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In a blog post this week, software engineer Andrew Rossignol (my brother!) detailed how he managed to run generative AI on an old PowerBook G4.

PowerBook G4 LLM
While hardware requirements for large language models (LLMs) are typically high, this particular PowerBook G4 model from 2005 is equipped with a mere 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 processor and 1GB of RAM. Despite this 20-year-old hardware, my brother was able to achieve inference with Meta's LLM model Llama 2 on the laptop.

The experiment involved porting the open-source llama2.c project, and then accelerating performance with a PowerPC vector extension called AltiVec.

His full blog post offers more technical details about the project.

Similar examples of generative AI models running on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and other old devices have surfaced in the news from time to time.

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Top Rated Comments

sw1tcher Avatar
sw1tcher
16 months ago

Properly optimized.... that's the ticket! So many people have demanded that Apple add in tons of RAM, but in doing so, developers get lazy and don't optimize, and then tons of RAM still isn't enough over time. I've appreciated Apple's conservative approach to RAM over the years, as it's forced optimizations, which is critical to software being great.
You've just given Apple a reason to reduce the Mac's standard memory from 16GB to 4GB.

Apple: "If gen AI can run on 1GB memory, image what it can do with 4GB memory (which is analogous to 8GB)!"
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
coolfactor
16 months ago

Wow! That's impressive! I'm not a developer so don't really understand the specifics but it shows that there is still a lot of headroom with current tech if properly optimized!
Properly optimized.... that's the ticket! So many people have demanded that Apple add in tons of RAM, but in doing so, developers get lazy and don't optimize, and then tons of RAM still isn't enough over time. I've appreciated Apple's conservative approach to RAM over the years, as it's forced optimizations, which is critical to software being great.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JTK Awesome Avatar
JTK Awesome
16 months ago

If you run Linux Mint on an old Mac, you really notice that macOS is actually quite bloated. They could have made the OS a lot lighter than they did.
MacOS, as well as iOS and iPadOS, are long overdue for a Snow Leopard-like update: 0 new features, just squash bugs and reduce system resources.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
stiligFox Avatar
stiligFox
16 months ago
Oh that's so cool!! I love PowerPC machines still. I have my PowerBook G3 Pismo still kicking around. I'll occasionally use it for writing projects or reminiscing about simpler times. Neat to see they're still keeping up with the latest trends *cough* ᶠᵃᵈˢ *cough*
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
R
ResPublica
16 months ago

Properly optimized.... that's the ticket! So many people have demanded that Apple add in tons of RAM, but in doing so, developers get lazy and don't optimize, and then tons of RAM still isn't enough over time. I've appreciated Apple's conservative approach to RAM over the years, as it's forced optimizations, which is critical to software being great.
If you run Linux Mint on an old Mac, you really notice that macOS is actually quite bloated. They could have made the OS a lot lighter than they did.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
J
JoshuaBru
16 months ago
Quick someone show Tim Cool or is he too busy filming himself jumping out of an airplane for the next keynote?
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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