{"slug": "minions-a-virtual-gpu-cloud-built-on-idle-apple-devices", "title": "Minions: A Virtual GPU Cloud Built on Idle Apple Devices", "summary": "A paper submitted to arXiv on 9 Oct 2026 presents Minions, a dynamic and distributed virtual GPU cloud that aggregates idle Apple Silicon GPUs across macOS devices to run large-scale machine learning inference workloads. The authors report the system provides flexible GPU inference task execution, fault tolerance, and efficient resource utilization, letting teams use existing hardware instead of procuring additional GPUs. The paper claims idle macOS devices can serve as a practical distributed GPU inference platform where centralized GPU resources are constrained.", "body_md": "# Computer Science > Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing\n\n  [Submitted on 9 Oct 2026]\n\n# Title:Minions: A Dynamic and Distributed Virtual GPU Cloud Built on Idle Apple Silicon Devices\n\n[View PDF](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.12970)\n\n[HTML (experimental)](https://arxiv.org/html/2610.12970v1)\n\nAbstract:The increasing demand for GPU-accelerated machine learning inference has exposed limitations in centralized GPU infrastructures, including high cost, limited elasticity, and long wait times under resource constraints. At the same time, modern Apple Silicon-based macOS devices are equipped with powerful GPUs that remain largely idle during normal usage. This paper presents Minions, a dynamic and distributed virtual GPU cloud that aggregates idle Apple Silicon GPUs across macOS devices to execute large-scale machine learning inference workloads. Minions enables teams to leverage existing hardware without requiring additional GPU procurement. The system provides flexible GPU inference task execution, fault tolerance, and efficient resource utilization. Our experience shows that idle macOS devices can be transformed into a practical distributed GPU inference platform in environments where centralized GPU resources are constrained.\n    \n\n### Additional Features\n\n### References & Citations\n\nLoading...\n\n# Bibliographic and Citation Tools\n\nBibliographic Explorer \n\n*(*[What is the Explorer?](https://info.arxiv.org/labs/showcase.html#arxiv-bibliographic-explorer))\nConnected Papers \n\n*(*[What is Connected Papers?](https://www.connectedpapers.com/about))\nLitmaps \n\n*(*[What is Litmaps?](https://www.litmaps.co/))\nscite Smart Citations \n\n*(*[What are Smart Citations?](https://www.scite.ai/))\n# Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article\n\nalphaXiv \n\n*(*[What is alphaXiv?](https://alphaxiv.org/))\nCatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers \n\n*(*[What is CatalyzeX?](https://www.catalyzex.com))\nDagsHub \n\n*(*[What is DagsHub?](https://dagshub.com/))\nGotit.pub \n\n*(*[What is GotitPub?](http://gotit.pub/faq))\nHugging Face \n\n*(*[What is Huggingface?](https://huggingface.co/huggingface))\nScienceCast \n\n*(*[What is ScienceCast?](https://sciencecast.org/welcome))\n# Demos\n\n# Recommenders and Search Tools\n\nInfluence Flower \n\n*(*[What are Influence Flowers?](https://influencemap.cmlab.dev/))\nCORE Recommender \n\n*(*[What is CORE?](https://core.ac.uk/services/recommender))\n# arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators\n\narXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.\n\nBoth individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.\n\nHave an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? [**Learn more about arXivLabs**](https://info.arxiv.org/labs/index.html).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/minions-a-virtual-gpu-cloud-built-on-idle-apple-devices", "canonical_source": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.12970", "published_at": "2026-10-15 19:35:15+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-15 19:58:11.386463+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-infrastructure", "machine-learning", "ai-chips", "ai-research"], "entities": ["Minions", "Apple Silicon", "macOS", "arXiv"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/minions-a-virtual-gpu-cloud-built-on-idle-apple-devices", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/minions-a-virtual-gpu-cloud-built-on-idle-apple-devices.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/minions-a-virtual-gpu-cloud-built-on-idle-apple-devices.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/minions-a-virtual-gpu-cloud-built-on-idle-apple-devices.jsonld"}}