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vLLM

vLLM is an open-source library and serving engine for high-throughput, memory-efficient inference of large language models.

How 2 Manning books explain it

Domain-Specific Small Language Models

A high-throughput model serving library for running and benchmarking language models with efficient attention and API compatibility.

How it is used
Supports offline inference, online API serving, quantized-model execution, and serving-performance benchmarking.
How deep it goes
Explains PagedAttention, KV-cache fragmentation, batching, APIs, deployment, and benchmarks, but defers detailed implementation code.
Examples
Demonstrates GPT-2 and Phi-3 Mini generation, chat templates, GGUF loading, OpenAI-client requests, and ShareGPT benchmarking.
What you can do after
Operate/configure local and HTTP language-model inference, then measure throughput, latency, and time to first token.

Read how Domain-Specific Small Language Models explains vLLM →

Transformers in Action

vLLM is an open-source serving library for efficient inference of large language models.

How it is used
Serves large language models with optimized latency and throughput for real-time or batched inference.
How deep it goes
Explains paged attention, batching, speculative decoding, and GPU kernels, then demonstrates deployment through an API.
Examples
Demonstrates serving Google Gemma 3 4B through a command-line server and OpenAI-compatible chat-completions client.
What you can do after
Operate/configure vLLM to serve a supported transformer model through an OpenAI-style endpoint.

Read how Transformers in Action explains vLLM →

Related concepts

These guides are generated from the text of Manning books by Manning's knowledge graph and link to the sections they draw on. The full books are available on liveBook and at manning.com.