Runtime Engine

What is a Runtime Engine?

A runtime engine is a specialised environment that is responsible for executing a specific type of application or program.

In the context of TensorRT and machine learning, the runtime engine is designed to execute optimised neural network models on NVIDIA GPUs.

This engine takes the optimised computational graph (the model), interprets it, and runs it, leveraging the underlying hardware for high performance.

Philosophy Behind a Runtime Engine

The philosophy behind a runtime engine is to separate the development phase from the execution phase.

During development, you may train a machine learning model using a high-level language and libraries that prioritise ease of use and flexibility. However, the code and environment optimised for development may not be optimised for speed or resource efficiency.

A runtime engine is a production-ready, optimised environment that only contains what is necessary to execute a particular application or task.

It does away with the overheads of development environments, thereby leading to more efficient execution.

The philosophy is about creating a specialised environment that's optimised for one thing: executing the application as fast and as efficiently as possible.

Other Examples of Runtime Engines

Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

It allows Java bytecode to be executed as actions in a virtual machine that simulates the real machine. This enables Java developers to write code that's portable across many platforms yet optimized for execution.

.NET Runtime

Like JVM, but for the Microsoft ecosystem. It allows for the execution of .NET applications, taking the Common Intermediate Language (CIL) code and compiling it Just-In-Time (JIT) for execution.

Python Interpreter

Python code doesn't run natively on the computer's architecture but instead runs within a Python runtime environment, which interprets the Python code and executes it.

Web Browsers' JavaScript Engine

Engines like V8 in Chrome, SpiderMonkey in Firefox, etc., serve as the runtime engines for JavaScript, interpreting and executing code on client machines.

Stream Processing Engines

Tools like Apache Kafka and Spark Streaming have runtime engines optimised for processing data in real-time.