- GPU cold starts for AI models in production can cause long startup times, affecting scaling and resource utilization.
- Cerebrium reduces cold starts by over 80% using CPU and GPU memory snapshots to restore fully initialized containers in seconds.
- Checkpointing involves pausing execution, dumping CPU/GPU memory to files, uploading to storage, and restoring on demand.
- High-level architecture includes a checkpoint service and modified gVisor containerd shim to decide between normal boot or restore.