Show HN: Maple-Preview – ternary 20B MoE running at 120 tok/s on a iPhone

For small models like this, it’s super important that it works well at tool calling etc. imho because it can’t memorize facts and isn’t big enough to tell when it doesn’t know. I could use it for high quality tool routing or a backup fast model for smaller task set. E.g. I use GPT-5.6 for voice channels at home. I’d prefer to be able to have this do basic tool calls and stuff because of the local speed.

Will give it a crack as a quick model in my clawlike.

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beautiful_apple 8 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A benchmark table comparing to Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B seems strange when Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B has been out for some time and is significantly better.

I didn't notice the version difference when first reading the article! So this is a heads up to people like me.

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walrus01 37 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I wish that "small" LLMs would stop being confidently very incorrect. Admittedly this is a bit of an intentionally esoteric test, but the confident way in which it presents a totally incorrect answer is a bit concerning.

"please write 250 words on the etymology and history of the word schlong"

https://pastes.io/uhshFgn4

The actual origin of the word is from middle high German and Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jewish communities.

For comparison qwen 3.6 35B A3B does perfect on this and will give a solid description of the word's real origins and how it has made it into casual profanity/vulgarity as used in US English, and even mentions specific stand-up comedians and famous public figures of specific ethnic/religious origin in the US NE who introduced it into wider use.

Ask it for something that's not a narrow niche scientific or technical field, but something that would be less common to make it into a 20B size model, and see just how it does.

chat test link: https://chat.deepgrove.ai/

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Havoc an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Looks promising though much like the bonsai tenary one it hallucinates knowledge quite aggressively. The online chat having search tools covers this up somewhat, but it's still there.

...from very unscientific casual vibes it does seem pretty good though considering the speed

Would also be curious what their search tool backend looks like - that too is very fast for very rapid multiple searches

	▲	zooloo99 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Makes me wonder how much we can 'get away with' in terms of raw model capability, when you have tool access for anything specialised or specific. I probably could make up a bit of an incorrect carrot cake recipe if asked on the spot, but with a Google search I can give you something far more robust. Maybe we don't need a 'country of geniuses' in our pocket, but more a helpful assistant that can reasonably reason!

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jsphweid an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As of now, 3 of the 5 comments on this page are just 0-1 karma accounts high-fiving the article. Suspicious.

	▲	netghost 40 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You can play with it online. I was pretty impressed with the speed/quality given it's size. It's definitely not going to replace a larger frontier model, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

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zooloo99 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Edge is edging closer!

Super cool and a taste of what's to come with local AI becoming more accessible to low-end hardware.

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HenryNdubuaku 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is cool!

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tokenmunching 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

i didnt think this was possible

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praneel_patel 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

this is quite smthn!

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aatmo 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

baller