Computation-Bandwidth-Memory Trade-offs: A Unified Paradigm for AI Infrastructure

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Fan, Yuankai, Weng, Qizhen, Li, Xuelong
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Fan, Yuankai
Weng, Qizhen
Li, Xuelong
author_facet Fan, Yuankai
Weng, Qizhen
Li, Xuelong
contents Large-scale artificial intelligence models are transforming industries and redefining human machine collaboration. However, continued scaling exposes critical limitations in hardware, including constraints on computation, bandwidth, and memory. These dimensions are tightly interconnected, so improvements in one often create bottlenecks in others, making isolated optimizations less effective. Balancing them to maximize system efficiency remains a central challenge in scalable AI design. To address this challenge, we introduce {Computation-Bandwidth-Memory Trade-offs}, termed the {AI Trinity}, a unified paradigm that positions {computation}, {bandwidth}, and {memory} as coequal pillars for next-generation AI infrastructure. AI Trinity enables dynamic allocation of resources across these pillars, alleviating single-resource bottlenecks and adapting to diverse scenarios to optimize system performance. Within this framework, AI Trinity identifies three fundamental trade-offs: (1) {More Computation$\rightarrow$Less Bandwidth}, wherein computational resources are exploited to reduce data transmission under limited bandwidth conditions, (2) {More Bandwidth$\rightarrow$Less Memory}, which exploits abundant communication capacity to populate or refresh memory when local storage resources are constrained, and (3) {More Memory$\rightarrow$Less Computation}, whereby storage capacity are utilized to mitigate redundant computation when computational costs are prohibitive. We illustrate the effectiveness of AI Trinity through representative system designs spanning edge-cloud communication, large-scale distributed training, and model inference. The innovations embodied in AI Trinity advance a new paradigm for scalable AI infrastructure, providing both a conceptual foundation and practical guidance for a broad range of application scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_11577
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Computation-Bandwidth-Memory Trade-offs: A Unified Paradigm for AI Infrastructure
Fan, Yuankai
Weng, Qizhen
Li, Xuelong
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Large-scale artificial intelligence models are transforming industries and redefining human machine collaboration. However, continued scaling exposes critical limitations in hardware, including constraints on computation, bandwidth, and memory. These dimensions are tightly interconnected, so improvements in one often create bottlenecks in others, making isolated optimizations less effective. Balancing them to maximize system efficiency remains a central challenge in scalable AI design. To address this challenge, we introduce {Computation-Bandwidth-Memory Trade-offs}, termed the {AI Trinity}, a unified paradigm that positions {computation}, {bandwidth}, and {memory} as coequal pillars for next-generation AI infrastructure. AI Trinity enables dynamic allocation of resources across these pillars, alleviating single-resource bottlenecks and adapting to diverse scenarios to optimize system performance. Within this framework, AI Trinity identifies three fundamental trade-offs: (1) {More Computation$\rightarrow$Less Bandwidth}, wherein computational resources are exploited to reduce data transmission under limited bandwidth conditions, (2) {More Bandwidth$\rightarrow$Less Memory}, which exploits abundant communication capacity to populate or refresh memory when local storage resources are constrained, and (3) {More Memory$\rightarrow$Less Computation}, whereby storage capacity are utilized to mitigate redundant computation when computational costs are prohibitive. We illustrate the effectiveness of AI Trinity through representative system designs spanning edge-cloud communication, large-scale distributed training, and model inference. The innovations embodied in AI Trinity advance a new paradigm for scalable AI infrastructure, providing both a conceptual foundation and practical guidance for a broad range of application scenarios.
title Computation-Bandwidth-Memory Trade-offs: A Unified Paradigm for AI Infrastructure
topic Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11577