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AI CURATED HOT STORY · 10/15/2026

Apple Updates MLX with Thunderbolt 5 RDMA to Enable Distributed Inference of Near-Trillion Parameter Models on Mac Studio Clusters

3 reports archived2 independent sourcesupdated 10/16/2026, 01:47:39
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Apple has released an updated version of the MLX framework, introducing Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over Thunderbolt 5 to enable low-latency, high-speed interconnects and distributed inference across multiple Mac Studio units. This breakthrough allows for the local execution of frontier models with nearly one trillion parameters, significantly lowering deployment barriers.

Cross-verified reports indicate that this solution was tested with Meta's newly open-sourced Muse Spark Open model, which features an 816B total parameter MoE architecture with 42B active parameters, native multimodality, and a 1M token context window. Leveraging Apple Silicon's unified memory architecture, the new MLX framework achieved generation speeds exceeding 36 tokens/s in a four-node cluster and reduced time-to-first-token latency by up to 4.6x compared to previous generations, validating its efficiency for long-range reasoning tasks.

This development marks a major leap in desktop-level AI computing ecosystems. By encapsulating hardware interconnect technologies within software, developers can now process ultra-large models locally without relying on expensive data centers. This not only accelerates the adoption of open-weight models but also provides competitive local inference solutions for privacy-sensitive industries, reshaping the landscape of edge computing combined with large language models.

LATEST/Meta simultaneously open-sourced the Muse Spark Open model, whose 816B parameters and 1M context capability were successfully run locally on dual M5 Ultra Mac Studio clusters, setting a new benchmark for consumer hardware hosting frontier LLMs.

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Total 3 reports · Latest first
  1. Hacker News AIT2·92 pts
    • Muse Spark Open features 816B total parameters with only 42B active, balancing capacity and inference efficiency.
    • Supports a 1M-token context window, specifically optimized for complex software engineering and multi-step agentic tasks.
    • First model of this scale to run locally on dual Apple M5 Ultra Mac Studios using the latest MLX framework.
  2. Hacker News AIT2·88 pts
    • Muse Spark Open features 816B total parameters (42B active), supporting 1M-token context and native multimodality.
    • The model is deeply optimized for coding, agentic workflows, and long-horizon complex reasoning tasks.
    • It achieves the first local inference of its class on two Apple M5 Ultra Mac Studios via the MLX framework, lowering deployment barriers.
  3. Apple Machine Learning ResearchT1·78 pts
    • MLX adds support for RDMA over Thunderbolt 5, enabling high-speed interconnect and distributed inference across multiple Mac Studio nodes.
    • Demonstrates feasibility of running near-trillion-parameter models (Muse Spark Open) locally, achieving 36+ tokens/s on a four-node cluster.
    • Leverages Apple Silicon's unified memory architecture to significantly optimize loading times and first-token latency for massive models.
Apple Updates MLX with Thunderbolt 5 RDMA to Enable Distributed Inference of Near-Trillion Parameter Models on Mac Studio Clusters | Today for AI