Struct MlxDevice 

pub struct MlxDevice { /* private fields */ }

Wraps a Metal device and its command queue.

Thread Safety

MlxDevice is Send + Sync — you can share it across threads. The underlying Metal device and command queue are thread-safe on Apple Silicon.

Implementations

impl MlxDevice

pub fn new() -> Result<Self>

Initialize the Metal GPU device and create a command queue.

Returns Err(MlxError::DeviceNotFound) if no Metal device is available (e.g. running on a non-Apple-Silicon machine or in a headless Linux VM).

pub fn command_encoder(&self) -> Result<CommandEncoder>

Create a CommandEncoder for batching GPU dispatches.

The encoder wraps a fresh Metal command buffer from the device’s command queue. Encode one or more kernel dispatches, then call CommandEncoder::commit_and_wait to submit and block until completion.

pub fn alloc_buffer( &self, byte_len: usize, dtype: DType, shape: Vec<usize>, ) -> Result<MlxBuffer>

Allocate a new GPU buffer with StorageModeShared.

Arguments

• byte_len — Size of the buffer in bytes. Must be > 0.
• dtype — Element data type for metadata tracking.
• shape — Tensor dimensions for metadata tracking.

Errors

Returns MlxError::InvalidArgument if byte_len is zero. Returns MlxError::BufferAllocationError if Metal cannot allocate.

pub fn metal_device(&self) -> &DeviceRef

Borrow the underlying metal::Device for direct Metal API calls (e.g. kernel compilation in KernelRegistry).

pub fn metal_queue(&self) -> &CommandQueue

Borrow the underlying metal::CommandQueue.

pub fn name(&self) -> String

Human-readable name of the GPU (e.g. “Apple M2 Max”).

Trait Implementations

impl Debug for MlxDevice

fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result

Formats the value using the given formatter.