About the Lab
A research environment built on practical infrastructure principles, hands-on experimentation, and honest documentation.
Lab Philosophy
Build What You Can Run
This lab prioritizes infrastructure that runs on real hardware. No hypothetical systems, no purely theoretical architectures. Every design decision is validated against actual workloads on physical machines.
Document Failure as Thoroughly as Success
Failed experiments are documented with the same rigor as successful ones. A negative result that prevents future wasted effort is as valuable as a positive breakthrough. We maintain a living knowledge base of what doesn't work and why.
Infrastructure Before Abstraction
We don't build frameworks for hypothetical use cases. We solve real infrastructure problems, extract patterns that emerge organically, and only then consider generalizing. Premature abstraction is avoided.
Measure, Don't Assume
Performance characteristics are measured, not estimated. Benchmarks are run on actual hardware. Architectural decisions are backed by empirical data from the lab environment.
Long-Term Thinking
This is a multi-year research initiative. We optimize for learning and understanding over quick wins. Systems are built to evolve. Documentation is written for future maintainers, including our future selves.
Operating Principles
Focus on Fundamentals
Deep understanding of GPU compute, storage I/O, network topology, and system architecture before adding complexity.
Iterative Refinement
Start simple, measure, learn, refine. Each iteration is documented. Systems evolve based on real operational experience.
Data-Driven Decisions
Infrastructure choices backed by benchmarks, profiling data, and measured performance characteristics.
Knowledge Preservation
Comprehensive documentation of decisions, experiments, and operational insights. Context is preserved for future reference.
Operational Excellence
Systems are designed to be operated, monitored, debugged, and maintained—not just built once and forgotten.
Sustainable Complexity
Only add complexity that can be understood, maintained, and justified by operational requirements.
What This Is Not
Not a Product
This is a research laboratory, not a software product. There are no roadmaps, releases, or customer commitments.
Not a Startup
No business model, no monetization strategy, no growth metrics. This is independent infrastructure research.
Not a Cloud Service
Everything runs on self-hosted, physical infrastructure. We study systems we can touch, measure, and control.
Not a Tutorial Site
Documentation captures real work and decisions, not step-by-step guides for beginners. We assume technical literacy.
Maintainer
This lab is maintained by an independent infrastructure engineer focused on practical AI systems research. The work emphasizes hands-on experimentation with GPU computing, distributed systems, and storage architecture.
The lab operates as a long-term research environment—measuring, documenting, and iterating on real infrastructure rather than building products or pursuing commercial objectives.
Collaboration
This lab is focused on independent research. While collaboration is not actively sought, the work is documented publicly to contribute to the broader infrastructure engineering community.
All experiments, decisions, and findings are shared via the GitHub repository and this documentation site.