Tenstorrent Lessons

Interactive guides for Tenstorrent hardware and software. Use the hardware filter to find lessons for your system.

Your First Inference

Modern Setup with tt-installer 2.0

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 15 min Validated

The fastest way to get started with Tenstorrent! Use tt-installer 2.0 for one-command installation of the full stack including drivers, firmware, tt-metalium containers, and Python environment.

Hardware Detection

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 5 min Validated

Scan for connected Tenstorrent devices and verify they're properly recognized by the system.

Verify Your Setup

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 5 min Validated

Check that your Tenstorrent hardware, TTNN, and optional tt-metal source are ready before running your first model. A diagnostic checkpoint — returns you here after any setup work.

Download Model and Run Inference

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 10 min Validated

Download Qwen3-0.6B (the recommended model — no license gate, works on all hardware) from Hugging Face to run AI workloads on your Tenstorrent hardware. Optionally download Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct for N300+ hardware.

Interactive Chat with Direct API

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 10 min Validated

Build a custom chat application using tt-metal's Generator API directly.

HTTP API Server with Direct API

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 10 min Validated

Create a production-ready Flask API with the model loaded in memory.

Build tt-metal from Source

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 60 min Validated

Clone and build tt-metal from source. Required for Direct API (Generator API) lessons and for running tt-metal examples directly. QB2 and pre-configured images do not ship with ~/tt-metal — start here if Check 3 in Verify Your Setup failed.

Serving & APIs

Applications

Custom Training

Understanding Custom Training

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 15 min Blocked

Learn the fundamentals of custom training on Tenstorrent hardware. Understand the difference between fine-tuning and training from scratch, explore the tt-train framework, and discover when to use each approach for building specialized AI models.

Dataset Fundamentals

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 15 min Blocked

Master dataset creation and validation for fine-tuning. Learn JSONL format, quality guidelines, tokenization concepts, and HuggingFace integration. Create high-quality training datasets that produce excellent model results.

Configuration Patterns

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 15 min Blocked

Learn YAML-driven training configuration using tt-blacksmith patterns. Master hyperparameters, device configuration, checkpointing strategies, and logging. Create reproducible, shareable training configurations.

Fine-tuning Basics

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 25 min Blocked

Train a character-level language model from scratch on Tenstorrent hardware. Watch NanoGPT learn Shakespeare through progressive training stages. See hierarchical learning in action as models learn structure before vocabulary before fluency.

Multi-Device Training

N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 15 min Blocked

Scale training to multiple Tenstorrent chips with Data Parallel (DDP). Learn device mesh configuration, gradient synchronization, and performance optimization. Achieve 2-8x speedup on N300, T3K, and Galaxy systems.

Experiment Tracking

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 15 min Blocked

Master experiment tracking with file-based logging and Weights & Biases (WandB) integration. Compare hyperparameter variations, visualize training curves, and manage experiments professionally. Make data-driven training decisions.

Model Architecture Basics

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 20 min Blocked

Understand transformer architecture components before training from scratch. Learn about embeddings, attention mechanisms, feed-forward networks, and how to design custom architectures. Prepare to build your own models.

Training from Scratch

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 90 min Blocked

Build and train a transformer from random initialization. Design nano-trickster (11M params), train on Shakespeare, and watch it learn language patterns from scratch. Compare to random baseline and understand scaling laws.

Cookbook

Tenstorrent Cookbook Overview

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 5 min Validated

Welcome to the Tenstorrent Cookbook! Build 5 complete projects that teach fundamental TT-Metal techniques: Conway's Game of Life, Audio Signal Processing, Mandelbrot Fractals, Image Filters, and Particle Life. Each recipe is a standalone lesson with full source code and visual output.

Recipe 1: Conway's Game of Life

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Validated

Build Conway's Game of Life using TTNN parallel tile computing. Learn convolution operations, cellular automata, and visual output generation. Includes classic patterns: gliders, blinkers, and the famous Gosper Glider Gun!

Recipe 2: Audio Signal Processing

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Validated

Build a real-time audio processing pipeline with TTNN. Compute mel-spectrograms, detect beats, extract pitch, and apply creative effects. Foundation for speech recognition models like Whisper!

Recipe 3: Mandelbrot Fractal Explorer

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Validated

Render beautiful fractals with interactive zoom! Demonstrates GPU-style parallel computation and complex number operations. Perfect for understanding embarrassingly parallel workloads on TT hardware.

Recipe 4: Custom Image Filters

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Validated

Build a library of creative image filters using 2D convolution. From edge detection to artistic effects - learn the techniques used in ResNet50, MobileNetV2, and ViT models!

Recipe 5: Particle Life Simulator

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Validated

Simulate emergent complexity from simple particle interactions! Features N² force calculations, multi-species dynamics, and multi-device acceleration for QuietBox systems. Beautiful chaos from simple physics!

Compilers & Frameworks

CS Fundamentals

Module 1: RISC-V & Computer Architecture

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Draft

Von Neumann architecture, fetch-decode-execute cycle, and RISC-V fundamentals. Understand how 880 RISC-V processors work by mastering one.

Module 2: The Memory Hierarchy

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Draft

Cache locality, bandwidth tradeoffs, and near-memory compute. Experience the memory hierarchy from registers to DRAM and understand why memory is the bottleneck in modern computing.

Module 3: Parallel Computing

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Draft

Amdahl's Law, SPMD patterns, and data parallelism. Scale from 1 to 880 cores and understand when parallelism helps (and when it doesn't).

Module 4: Networks and Communication

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Draft

Message passing, network topologies, and routing algorithms. Master the Network-on-Chip that connects 880 cores and understand distributed systems principles on a single chip.

Module 5: Synchronization

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Draft

Race conditions, barriers, and coordination. Learn explicit synchronization on hardware without cache coherence and understand the challenges of concurrent programming at scale.

Module 6: Abstraction Layers

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Draft

From Python to machine code. Understand the compilation pipeline, when abstractions help performance, and when they hurt. See the full stack from high-level frameworks to RISC-V silicon.

Module 7: Computational Complexity in Practice

N150N300T3KP100P150P300CGalaxy 30 min Draft

Big-O meets real hardware. See why constants matter, how algorithm-hardware co-design achieves breakthrough performance, and why Flash Attention is "O(n)" in practice. The capstone that ties all modules together.

Advanced

Deployment