PicoLM runs a 1B-parameter LLM on a $10 board with 256MB RAM — pure C, zero dependencies
tom_doerr · x · 2026-09-14
Open-source PicoLM runs a 1-billion-parameter LLM on a $9.90 dev board with just 256MB RAM. Highlights:
- Pure C, zero dependencies, one binary — no Python, no cloud; loads GGUF models and infers locally with multi-threading.
- Built as the local brain for PicoClaw, an ultra-lightweight Go AI assistant, forming a fully offline AI agent: no API keys, no internet, no monthly bills, data never leaves the device.
- The project contrasts this with cloud LLMs on cost (free forever vs per-token), privacy (on-device), and latency (no network round-trip).
It has 1.9k GitHub stars and targets offline embedded AI use cases.
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