--- title: Since 1987 – Covering the Fastest Computers in the World... description: Spectral Compute, a London-based startup founded in 2018, has built SCALE — a drop-in replacement for Nvidia's NVCC CUDA compiler built on Clang and LLVM.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/since-1987-covering-the-fastest-computers-in-the-world-and-the-people-who-run-them-5fwkfpywp twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Since 1987 – Covering the Fastest Computers in the World and the People Who Run Them | daily.dev og:description: Spectral Compute, a London-based startup founded in 2018, has built SCALE — a drop-in replacement for Nvidia's NVCC CUDA compiler built on Clang and LLVM.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/since-1987-covering-the-fastest-computers-in-the-world-and-the-people-who-run-them-5fwkfpywp og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/5FWkfpYwP.png og:image:alt: Since 1987 – Covering the Fastest Computers in the World and the People Who Run Them og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Since 1987 – Covering the Fastest Computers in the World and the People Who Run Them **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Spectral Compute, a London-based startup founded in 2018, has built SCALE — a drop-in replacement for Nvidia's NVCC CUDA compiler built on Clang and LLVM. Unlike tools such as AMD's HIPIFY, Intel's SYCLomatic, or ZLUDA, SCALE takes a clean-room reimplementation approach that preserves PTX support and delivers near-native performance on AMD GPUs, claiming up to 6x better performance than HIPIFY. The company targets hardware lock-in by enabling CUDA code to run on AMD GPUs, third-party AI accelerators, and even Nvidia GPUs with additional optimizations. With $6M raised, ~30 employees, Nvidia Inception membership, and upcoming PyTorch support, Spectral is positioning itself as a neutral bridge across the GPU ecosystem. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is SCALE and how does it let CUDA code run on AMD GPUs? SCALE is a compiler built by Spectral Compute using Clang and LLVM technology that serves as a drop-in replacement for Nvidia's NVCC compiler, enabling CUDA code to run on AMD GPUs and other hardware. Unlike HIPIFY or ZLUDA, it performs a clean-room recompilation rather than binary translation, reportedly achieving nearly 6x better performance than HIPIFY-converted code on AMD GPUs. _Teams weighing a move off CUDA lock-in can track compiler options like this one on daily.dev._ ### How does SCALE compare to HIPIFY and ZLUDA for running CUDA code on non-Nvidia hardware? SCALE reportedly outperforms both alternatives: HIPIFY ignores Parallel Thread Execution (PTX), the Nvidia assembly language enabling deep hardware access, while ZLUDA operates on compiled binaries as a middleware layer, hurting performance. SYCLomatic, Intel's tool, migrates about 90% of code automatically but needs manual work for the remainder. Spectral Compute claims SCALE delivers nearly 6x the performance of HIPIFY-converted code on AMD GPUs. _Developers deciding between CUDA portability tools can follow comparisons like this on daily.dev._ ### Who founded Spectral Compute and what problem is the company solving? Spectral Compute was founded in 2018 by CEO Michael Søndergaard, CTO Chris Kitching, and software engineers Nicholas Tomlinson and Francois Souchay, who had a combined 60 years of HPC optimization experience and grew frustrated with Nvidia GPU costs and poor alternative compiler performance. The London-based company has raised $6 million, employs about 30 people, and built the SCALE compiler to free CUDA code from Nvidia hardware lock-in. _Anyone tracking CUDA alternatives and hardware lock-in debates can follow this story on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AMD, Supermicro and Spectro Cloud Launch Turnkey Solution to Scale Enterprise AI Coding](https://daily.dev/posts/amd-supermicro-and-spectro-cloud-launch-turnkey-solution-to-scale-enterprise-ai-coding-rs3av28v7) · SD Times · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Luminal raises $5.3 million to build a better GPU code framework](https://daily.dev/posts/luminal-raises-5-3-million-to-build-a-better-gpu-code-framework-hial7ylhf) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Brit rent-a-GPU biz Nscale picks up $2B, hires Nick Clegg](https://daily.dev/posts/brit-rent-a-gpu-biz-nscale-picks-up-2b-hires-nick-clegg-je0unckx8) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#nvidia](https://daily.dev/tags/nvidia), [#gpu](https://daily.dev/tags/gpu), [#amd](https://daily.dev/tags/amd), [#compiler](https://daily.dev/tags/compiler), [#cuda](https://daily.dev/tags/cuda) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/since-1987-covering-the-fastest-computers-in-the-world-and-the-people-who-run-them-5fwkfpywp) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Since 1987 – Covering the Fastest Computers in the World and the People Who Run Them","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/since-1987-covering-the-fastest-computers-in-the-world-and-the-people-who-run-them-5fwkfpywp","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/since-1987-covering-the-fastest-computers-in-the-world-and-the-people-who-run-them-5fwkfpywp"},"datePublished":"2026-07-14T10:09:38.236Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T20:04:00.993Z","description":"Spectral Compute, a London-based startup founded in 2018, has built SCALE — a drop-in replacement for Nvidia's NVCC CUDA compiler built on Clang and LLVM....","image":"https://www.hpcwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/code_shutterstock_Banana-Images.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://www.hpcwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/code_shutterstock_Banana-Images.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/since-1987-covering-the-fastest-computers-in-the-world-and-the-people-who-run-them-5fwkfpywp","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"nvidia,gpu,amd,compiler,cuda","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Since 1987 – Covering the Fastest Computers in the World and the People Who Run Them"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/since-1987-covering-the-fastest-computers-in-the-world-and-the-people-who-run-them-5fwkfpywp#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is SCALE and how does it let CUDA code run on AMD GPUs?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"SCALE is a compiler built by Spectral Compute using Clang and LLVM technology that serves as a drop-in replacement for Nvidia's NVCC compiler, enabling CUDA code to run on AMD GPUs and other hardware. 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