Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview – A language model launched by IBM

What is Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview?

Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview is a preview version of the smallest model in IBM’s Granite 4.0 language model family. It features extremely high computational efficiency and a compact model structure, enabling multiple long-context (128K tokens) tasks to run on consumer-grade GPUs. The model delivers performance comparable to Granite 3.3 2B Instruct while reducing memory requirements by approximately 72%.

It adopts an innovative hybrid Mamba-2/Transformer architecture, combining the efficiency of Mamba with the precision of Transformers. With NoPE (No Position Encoding), the model handles extremely long contexts effectively.

Key Features of Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview

Efficient Execution: Capable of running multiple long-context (128K tokens) tasks on consumer GPUs, ideal for developers with limited resources.
Low Memory Requirement: Uses approximately 72% less memory. Only 1B of its 7B parameters are active during inference, significantly lowering hardware demands.
Long Context Handling: Supports NoPE (No Position Encoding), validated to handle at least 128K tokens effectively.
Inference Efficiency: Activates only a portion of the experts during inference, improving efficiency and reducing latency.

Technical Principles of Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview

Hybrid Architecture: Combines Mamba’s linear computational complexity (ideal for long sequences) with Transformer’s precise attention mechanism. The model features a ratio of 9 Mamba blocks to 1 Transformer block, with Mamba blocks capturing global context and Transformer blocks handling local parsing.
Mixture of Experts (MoE): The model contains 7B parameters divided into 64 experts. Only 1B parameters are active during inference, drastically reducing computational load.
No Position Encoding (NoPE): Abandons traditional position encoding to avoid its computational overhead and limitations for long sequences, maintaining strong long-context performance.
Long Context Optimization: Thanks to Mamba’s scalable design and the model’s compact architecture, it supports extremely long contexts, theoretically limited only by hardware capacity.

Project Links for Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview

Official Website: https://www.ibm.com/new/announcements/ibm-granite-4-0-tiny-preview
Hugging Face Model Page: https://huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-4.0-tiny-preview

Application Scenarios for Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview

Edge Deployment: Suitable for running on resource-constrained edge devices or consumer hardware, ideal for lightweight text processing tasks.
Long-Text Analysis: Capable of handling 128K-token contexts, applicable in long document generation, analysis, or summarization.
Parallel Multi-tasking: Supports running multiple instances simultaneously on the same hardware, making it ideal for batch processing or multi-user environments.
Enterprise Application Development: Can be used in intelligent customer service, document processing, and other enterprise-level tasks, offering efficient language model support.
Low-Cost R&D: Open-source and compatible with consumer hardware, allowing developers to experiment and innovate at a low cost.