Minions：构建在闲置 Apple Silicon 设备上的动态分布式虚拟 GPU 云
Minions: A Dynamic and Distributed Virtual GPU Cloud Built on Idle Apple Silicon Devices
Jianhua Li, Yun Xing, Girisha De Silva, Ryan Flint, Kai Yuan, Sean Suchter
AI 速览：Minions 将多台 macOS 设备上闲置的 Apple Silicon GPU 聚合成分布式虚拟 GPU 云，用于执行大规模机器学习推理任务。
The increasing demand for GPU-accelerated machine learning inference has exposed limitations in centralized GPU infrastructures, including high cost, limited elasticity, and long wait times under resource constraints. At the same time, modern Apple Silicon-based macOS devices are equipped with powerful GPUs that remain largely idle during normal usage. This paper presents Minions, a dynamic and distributed virtual GPU cloud that aggregates idle Apple Silicon GPUs across macOS devices to execute large-scale machine learning inference workloads. Minions enables teams to leverage existing hardware without requiring additional GPU procurement. The system provides flexible GPU inference task execution, fault tolerance, and efficient resource utilization. Our experience shows that idle macOS devices can be transformed into a practical distributed GPU inference platform in environments where centralized GPU resources are constrained.