LatestMachine LearningHow Deepseek Destroyed OpenAI, and How You Can Do it Too! 0 like March 8, 2025Share this postAuthor(s): Mohit Varikuti Originally published on Towards AI. What is PTX/ASM?This member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.In the rapidly evolving world of GPU computing, performance can often be the make-or-break factor in an applications success. One of the secret weapons behind high-performance frameworks like DeepSeek is the intelligent use of CUDA PTX and inline assembly (ASM). DeepSeeks remarkable efficiency and speed didnt come solely from high-level algorithm design; it was also the way DeepSeek got so good by exploiting low-level CUDA PTX/ASM optimizations to squeeze every ounce of performance from modern GPUs.In this article, well dive into CUDAs PTX (Parallel Thread Execution) language and explore how inline assembly can be used within CUDA kernels. Well look at what PTX is, how it fits into the CUDA compilation pipeline, and examine some practical code examples.CUDA PTX is an intermediate assembly-like language used by NVIDIA GPUs. Think of PTX as the assembly language for CUDA, though its higher-level than the actual machine code executed on the GPU. When you compile CUDA code using nvcc, your high-level C/C++ code is transformed into PTX code, which is then optimized and further compiled down to machine-specific binary code (SASS) for the target GPU, more specifically:Portability: PTX abstracts many hardware details, Read the full blog for free on Medium.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AITowards AI - Medium Share this post