# How to Accept an Inference Storage Project: 4 Gates

> Split acceptance of an inference storage project into four gates on a weekly schedule: delivery, single-node baseline, main joint-test gate and stability sign-off.

URL: https://vuke.top/en/insights/inference-storage-acceptance-gates · Updated November 12, 2026

Published: 2026-11-12

**Question**: How should an inference storage acceleration project be accepted so that you do not pay for performance that never materializes?

**Short answer**: Split acceptance into four gates on a weekly schedule, each with a measurable pass condition, and stop at any gate that is missed: G1 delivery acceptance (week 2), G2 single-node baseline (week 4), G3 main joint-test gate (week 7) and G4 stability and sign-off (week 10).

## Why use gates

The most common dispute in performance projects goes like this: the equipment has arrived, the money has been paid, the numbers after go-live do not match the proposal, and each side has its own view of what counts as meeting the target.

Gating moves that argument to the front. Before the engagement starts, both sides write down what is tested at each stage and what reading counts as a pass; a pass opens the next stage and a miss stops the loss. The buyer's exposure is limited to the gate currently in progress.

## Pass conditions of the four gates

These are the four gates we use in joint tests, about 10 weeks end to end.

- G1 delivery acceptance (week 2): all materials delivered and inspected; every array passes its power-on self-test with all 24 drives recognized.
- G2 single-node baseline (week 4): the single-node 8-GPU inference baseline is reproduced within ±10% of the R1 figures [R1](https://vuke.top/en/evidence/R1); a local stress test of one array reaches 83% line efficiency against the measured anchor.
- G3 main joint-test gate (week 7): a TTFT reduction of ≥25% and a throughput gain inside the measured +29–40% band [R2](https://vuke.top/en/evidence/R2) [R3](https://vuke.top/en/evidence/R3); with 8 nodes sharing one array, read-back bandwidth approaches the NIC ceiling.
- G4 stability and sign-off (week 10): 72 hours of continuous load without interruption; single-drive and single-link fault injection stays invisible to the workload; a signed joint-test report is issued.

## Where the gate thresholds come from

The thresholds are not negotiated; they are taken from existing measured reports. The throughput band required at G3 is the +29–40% measured on the 480B model in two deployment topologies [R2](https://vuke.top/en/evidence/R2) [R3](https://vuke.top/en/evidence/R3).

The benefit is that it binds both sides: the vendor cannot lower the bar afterwards, and the buyer is never asked to accept a target that has not been measured before.

## What else a buyer should ask for

Beyond the gates themselves, three things are worth writing into the agreement.

- Signed reports: the result of every gate is on paper rather than left in a demo.
- Reproduction material: the patch, load client, orchestration scripts and raw data, so your own team can rerun the tests [R8](https://vuke.top/en/evidence/R8).
- A recomputable costing model: the return calculation is delivered as source code so that you can rerun it with your own parameters.

## Related test reports

- [R1](https://vuke.top/en/evidence/R1) · FX100 Comprehensive LLM Inference and Training Benchmark (8 × AMD MI308X) (8 × AMD Instinct MI308X · ROCm 7.2)
- [R2](https://vuke.top/en/evidence/R2) · FX100 KV Cache Benchmark (480B, TP8, Long Context) (8 × AMD Instinct MI308X · ROCm 7.2)
- [R3](https://vuke.top/en/evidence/R3) · FX100 KV Cache Benchmark Summary (480B, TP4×2, All Metrics) (8 × AMD Instinct MI308X · ROCm 7.2)
- [R8](https://vuke.top/en/evidence/R8) · FX100 KV Cache Test Code Export and Raw Benchmark Data (AMD Instinct MI308X · ROCm 7.2)

## External references

- [MLPerf Inference: Datacenter](https://mlcommons.org/benchmarks/inference-datacenter/) · MLCommons. The methodology of a public inference benchmark, a neutral reference when discussing comparable and reproducible results