kvbm_intro.rst

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KV Block Manager
================
The Dynamo KV Block Manager (KVBM) is a scalable runtime component designed to handle memory allocation, management, and remote sharing of Key-Value (KV) blocks for inference tasks across heterogeneous and distributed environments. It acts as a unified memory layer for frameworks like vLLM, SGLang, and TRT-LLM.

It offers:

* A **unified memory API** that spans GPU memory, pinned host memory, remote RDMA-accessible memory, local or distributed pool of SSDs and remote file/object/cloud storage systems.
* Support for evolving **block lifecycles** (allocate → register → match) with event-based state transitions that storage can subscribe to.
* Integration with **NIXL**, a dynamic memory exchange layer used for remote registration, sharing, and access of memory blocks over RDMA/NVLink.

The Dynamo KV Block Manager serves as a reference implementation that emphasizes modularity and extensibility. Its pluggable design enables developers to customize components and optimize for specific performance, memory, and deployment needs.

.. list-table::
   :widths: 20 5 75
   :header-rows: 1

   * -
     -
     - Feature
   * - **Backend**
     - ✅
     - Local
   * -
     - ✅
     - Kubernetes
   * - **LLM Framework**
     - ✅
     - vLLM
   * -
     - ❌
     - TensorRT-LLM
   * -
     - ❌
     - SGLang
   * - **Serving Type**
     - ✅
     - Aggregated
   * -
     - ✅
     - Disaggregated

.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   Overview <self>
   Motivation <kvbm_motivation.md>
   KVBM Architecture <kvbm_architecture.md>
   Understanding KVBM components <kvbm_components.md>
   KVBM Further Reading <kvbm_reading>
   LMCache Integration <../components/backends/vllm/LMCache_Integration.md>