WebLLM vs. VLLM

WebLLM acts as a powerful inference engine for language models, functioning directly within web browsers and harnessing WebGPU technology to ensure efficient LLM operations without relying on server resources. This platform seamlessly integrates with the OpenAI API, providing a user-friendly experience that includes features like JSON mode, function-calling abilities, and streaming options. With its native compatibility for a diverse array of models, including Llama, Phi, Gemma, RedPajama, Mistral, and Qwen, WebLLM demonstrates its flexibility across various artificial intelligence applications. Users are empowered to upload and deploy custom models in MLC format, allowing them to customize WebLLM to meet specific needs and scenarios. The integration process is straightforward, facilitated by package managers such as NPM and Yarn or through CDN, and is complemented by numerous examples along with a modular structure that supports easy connections to user interface components. Moreover, the platform's capability to deliver streaming chat completions enables real-time output generation, making it particularly suited for interactive applications like chatbots and virtual assistants, thereby enhancing user engagement. This adaptability not only broadens the scope of applications for developers but also encourages innovative uses of AI in web development. As a result, WebLLM represents a significant advancement in deploying sophisticated AI tools directly within the browser environment.

VLLM is an innovative library specifically designed for the efficient inference and deployment of Large Language Models (LLMs). Originally developed at UC Berkeley's Sky Computing Lab, it has evolved into a collaborative project that benefits from input by both academia and industry. The library stands out for its remarkable serving throughput, achieved through its unique PagedAttention mechanism, which adeptly manages attention key and value memory. It supports continuous batching of incoming requests and utilizes optimized CUDA kernels, leveraging technologies such as FlashAttention and FlashInfer to enhance model execution speed significantly. In addition, VLLM accommodates several quantization techniques, including GPTQ, AWQ, INT4, INT8, and FP8, while also featuring speculative decoding capabilities. Users can effortlessly integrate VLLM with popular models from Hugging Face and take advantage of a diverse array of decoding algorithms, including parallel sampling and beam search. It is also engineered to work seamlessly across various hardware platforms, including NVIDIA GPUs, AMD CPUs and GPUs, and Intel CPUs, which assures developers of its flexibility and accessibility. This extensive hardware compatibility solidifies VLLM as a robust option for anyone aiming to implement LLMs efficiently in a variety of settings, further enhancing its appeal and usability in the field of machine learning.