Yes, typically users send the newest user message and the full conversation history. These combined become the prompt.
Our API endpoint will try to route requests that has the same prefix to the same vLLM instance (similar to longest prefix matching in networking), and hopefully there are still some KV caches for part of the prompt there.
Yes, decoding is very I/O heavy. It has to stream in the whole of the model weights from HBM for every token decoded. However, that cost can be shared between the requests in the same batch. So if the system has more GPU RAM to hold larger batches, the I/O cost per request can be lowered.
Hi, I'm the author of this post. Writing it was a great learning experience. I gained a lot of insight into vLLM. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to drop a comment below!
FYI a literature review from a deep research AI
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The effect of noise on sleep is multifaceted, involving various types of noise exposure, physiological mechanisms, and consequences on sleep quality and health.
I. Introduction
Environmental and occupational noise refers to unwanted or harmful sounds from sources such as traffic, aircraft, railways, and workplaces. Noise pollution is a significant public health issue due to its widespread prevalence and impact on sleep and overall health.
II. Types of Noise Exposure
Environmental noise includes road traffic, aircraft, and railway noise. Aircraft noise, for example, has been shown to negatively affect sleep in children, whereas road traffic noise may have less impact on autonomic activity during sleep [Effect of Noise on Sleep and Autonomic Activity in Children].
Occupational noise exposure also contributes to sleep disturbances and has been linked to sleep loss and fragmentation [The effects of occupational noise on sleep].
Intentional masking noise such as white or pink noise is sometimes used as a sleep aid to improve sleep quality in noisy environments [The effects of white noise on sleep].
III. Physiological Mechanisms
During sleep, the auditory system continues to process sounds, and noise can lower arousal thresholds, causing awakenings or micro-arousals. Noise exposure activates the autonomic nervous system, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, and stimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to hormonal and metabolic changes [Environmental noise and sleep disturbances].
IV. Effects on Sleep Architecture
Noise exposure reduces total sleep time and sleep efficiency, increases sleep fragmentation, and causes more frequent micro-arousals. It also alters sleep stages by decreasing deep sleep (slow-wave sleep) and REM sleep, which are critical for restorative sleep [Effects of environmental noise on sleep].
V. Health and Daytime Consequences
Poor sleep due to noise leads to daytime sleepiness, cognitive impairments, and mood disturbances. Chronic noise-related sleep disruption is associated with increased cardiovascular and metabolic risks, such as hypertension and glucose metabolism disturbances. It also negatively affects quality of life and can contribute to burnout [Environmental Noise and Effects on Sleep], [Effects of personal noise exposure, sleep quality, and burnout].
VI. Vulnerable and Special Populations
Children are particularly sensitive to noise, with aircraft noise shown to disrupt their sleep more than road traffic noise. Older adults and individuals with pre-existing sleep disorders are also more vulnerable to noise-induced sleep disturbances [Effect of Noise on Sleep and Autonomic Activity in Children].
VII. Noise as a Sleep Aid
Paradoxically, steady background noise such as white or pink noise can improve sleep quality by masking disruptive environmental sounds. Studies have shown that white noise can significantly enhance subjective and objective sleep measures in noisy urban settings. However, potential downsides include hearing damage and psychological dependency on noise for sleep [Noise as a sleep aid: A systematic review], [The effects of white noise on sleep].
VIII. Mitigation and Future Directions
Effective strategies to mitigate noise effects on sleep include engineering controls like soundproofing, use of earplugs, and regulatory noise limits. Behavioral interventions and public health policies are also important. Future research is needed to clarify long-term effects, dose-response relationships, and to develop personalized interventions [The Effect of Room Acoustics on the Sleep Quality of Healthy Sleepers].
In summary, noise negatively impacts sleep by disrupting sleep architecture and triggering physiological stress responses, leading to adverse health outcomes. While some forms of noise can aid sleep by masking disturbances, overall noise reduction remains critical for improving sleep quality and health.
References
Environmental noise and sleep disturbances: A threat to health?
Demian Halperin et al. Sleep Science, 2014 Nov 15.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4608916/
Poor sleep causes measurable changes on these systems. Experimental studies demonstrated that both sleep restriction and poor quality sleep affect glucose ...
Effects of environmental noise on sleep
Kenneth I Hume et al. Noise & health, 2012.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23257581/
This paper summarizes the findings from the past 3 year's research on the effects of environmental noise on sleep and identifies key future research goals.
The Effect of Room Acoustics on the Sleep Quality of Healthy Sleepers
Ingo Fietze et al. Noise & Health, 2016 Sep-Oct.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5187651/
Noise is one of the factors that can seriously disturb sleep, and sound volume is an important factor in this context. One strategy involves avoiding ...
Noise as a sleep aid: A systematic review
Samantha M. Riedy et al. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2021/02/01.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10870...
... sleep aid, especially since it may also negatively affect sleep and hearing. ... Suzuki et al. Sleep deepening effect of steady pink noise. J Sound Vib. (1991).
Environmental Noise and Effects on Sleep: An Update to the WHO Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Michael G Smith et al. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2022 Jul 11.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9272916/
Jul 11, 2022 ... To what extent have the following outcomes of railway noise occurred in the past 12 months? Railway noise disturbs when falling asleep. Not ...
Effects of personal noise exposure, sleep quality, and burnout on quality of life: An online participation cohort study in Taiwan
Ta-Chien Chan et al. Science of The Total Environment, 2024/03/10.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972...
Mar 10, 2024 ... To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the pathways through which daily noise exposure, sleep quality, and personal burnout affect ...
Effect of Noise on Sleep and Autonomic Activity in Children according to Source
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8476937/
Road traffic noise did not significantly alter sleep or autonomic activity in children, whereas aircraft noise exerted a negative effect on sleep.
The effects of occupational noise on sleep: A systematic review
Saeid Yazdanirad et al. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2023/12/01.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10870...
One of the important effects due to noise exposure is sleep loss/disturbance, which has received less attention. Sleep disturbance is defined as problems with ...
The effects of white noise on sleep and duration in individuals living in a high noise environment in New York City
Matthew R Ebben et al. Sleep medicine, 2021/7.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34049045/
Our data show that white noise significantly improved sleep based on subjective and objective measurements in subjects complaining of difficulty sleeping.
If you have ever lost someone due to other drivers not watching the road, you will start to appreciate that these cars are at least always watching the road and won’t kill people standing right in front of them. Nevertheless, a lot of improvements still need to be made, and I hope they do them quickly and safely.
Hi, I had a quick question. Would it be correct to say the following?
1. For long inputs and short outputs, the inference can be arbitrarily number of times faster, as it avoids repeated KV computation.
2. Conversely, for short inputs and long outputs, it might be slightly slower, since loading and storing the KV cache are on the critical path of the execution.
Before I became a software engineer, I was a computational physicist. My days back then were pretty much tweaking some parameters, running a job, then reading papers and checking back after a few minutes or hours. Increasingly, I’m starting to think my days as a software engineer will be pretty similar.