ROCm™ has been AMD’s software foundation for both high-performance computing (HPC) and AI workloads and continues to support the distinct needs of each domain. As these domains increasingly converge, ROCm™ is evolving into a more modular and flexible platform. Soon, the distribution model shifts to a core SDK with domain-specific add-ons—such as HPC—allowing users to select only the components they need. This reduces unnecessary overhead while maintaining a cohesive and interoperable stack.

To support this modularity, AMD transitions to TheRock, an open-source build system that enables component-level integration, nightly and weekly builds, and streamlined delivery across the ROCm™ stack. TheRock is designed to handle the complexity of building and packaging ROCm™ in a way that’s scalable and transparent for developers. It plays a central role in how ROCm™ is assembled and delivered, especially as the platform moves toward more frequent and flexible release cycles.

In this talk, we’ll cover the entire development and delivery pipeline—from the consolidation into three super-repos to how ROCm™ is built, tested, and shipped. This includes an overview of the development process, the delivery mechanism, TheRock’s implementation, and the testing infrastructure. We’ll also explain how contributors can engage with ROCm™—whether through code, documentation, or domain-specific enhancements—making it easier for developers to help shape the platform.

Online resources TheRock: https://github.com/ROCm/TheRock rocm-libraries: https://github.com/ROCm/rocm-libraries rocm-systems: https://github.com/ROCm/rocm-systems

Most projects are under MIT license.

Speaker JP Lehr, Senior Member of Technical Staff, ROCm™ GPU Compiler, AMD

© 2026 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, ROCm, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies. LLVM is a trademark of LLVM Foundation. The OpenMP name and the OpenMP logo are registered trademarks of the OpenMP Architecture Review Board.