What is ROCm?#
2023-06-12
4 min read time
ROCm is an open-source stack for GPU computation. ROCm is primarily Open-Source Software (OSS) that allows developers the freedom to customize and tailor their GPU software for their own needs while collaborating with a community of other developers, and helping each other find solutions in an agile, flexible, rapid and secure manner.
ROCm is a collection of drivers, development tools and APIs enabling GPU programming from the low-level kernel to end-user applications. ROCm is powered by AMD’s Heterogeneous-computing Interface for Portability (HIP), an OSS C++ GPU programming environment and its corresponding runtime. HIP allows ROCm developers to create portable applications on different platforms by deploying code on a range of platforms, from dedicated gaming GPUs to exascale HPC clusters. ROCm supports programming models such as OpenMP and OpenCL, and includes all the necessary OSS compilers, debuggers and libraries. ROCm is fully integrated into ML frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow. ROCm can be deployed in many ways, including through the use of containers such as Docker, Spack, and your own build from source.
ROCm’s goal is to allow our users to maximize their GPU hardware investment. ROCm is designed to help develop, test and deploy GPU accelerated HPC, AI, scientific computing, CAD, and other applications in a free, open-source, integrated and secure software ecosystem.