GPUd

GPUd is a term used to describe a hypothetical daemon or service designed to centralize the management of graphics processing unit resources in a single host or a computing cluster. Its primary goal is to enable safe, efficient sharing of GPUs among multiple processes and users while enforcing policies related to utilization, isolation, and thermal or power constraints.

In practice, a GPUd would provide a vendor-agnostic interface to query GPU state, assign devices to tasks, and collect metrics. It would integrate with driver interfaces such as NVIDIA's NVML or the ROCm SMI to monitor temperature, utilization, memory, and power, and would expose an API or command-line tools for orchestration systems and container runtimes.

Architecture and features commonly envisioned include a central scheduler, a driver abstraction layer, a policy engine, and a metrics/logging subsystem. A GPUd would support plugins for device-specific behavior, offer GPU quotas and access control for multi-tenant environments, and provide preemption or migration mechanisms to improve utilization.

Use cases include data centers and AI/ML training clusters, rendering farms, and high-performance computing environments that require controlled GPU sharing and enhanced utilization, security, and fault isolation.

Limitations include the lack of a formal standard; real-world implementation would depend on vendor driver APIs, security implications, and interoperability with container platforms. GPUd concepts intersect with GPU virtualization technologies and Kubernetes device plugins, but it is distinct from them as a centralized management layer.