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Variable Grouped Swizzle#2914

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int-smart wants to merge 5 commits intoNVIDIA:mainfrom
int-smart:feat/variable_swizzle
Open

Variable Grouped Swizzle#2914
int-smart wants to merge 5 commits intoNVIDIA:mainfrom
int-smart:feat/variable_swizzle

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@int-smart int-smart commented Apr 22, 2026

Description

Grouped Swizzle with variable shape. Not sure if this is needed but if not can be closed.

Fixes #2451

Type of change

  • Documentation change (change only to the documentation, either a fix or a new content)
  • Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
  • New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
  • Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
  • Infra/Build change
  • Code refactoring

Changes

Please list the changes introduced in this PR:

  • Change A
  • Change B

Checklist:

  • I have read and followed the contributing guidelines
  • The functionality is complete
  • I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
  • I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
  • My changes generate no new warnings
  • I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
  • New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes

int-smart and others added 3 commits April 21, 2026 23:54
… update C++ operator interface

Signed-off-by: Abhishek <abhi.dtu11@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Abhishek <abhi.dtu11@gmail.com>
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greptile-apps Bot commented Apr 22, 2026

Greptile Summary

This PR adds variable-shape support to the grouped MXFP8 swizzle kernel, replacing the previous hard error on non-uniform first_dims/last_dims with a new persistent-grid kernel (grouped_swizzle_scaling_variable_shape_kernel) that dispatches tiles per tensor via a device-side linear scan. The uniform-shape path is preserved as a fast path. Test coverage is expanded with six shape combinations, and build_grouped_tensor is updated to store a num_tensors + 1 offset array as a proper prefix-sum endpoint.

Confidence Score: 4/5

Safe to merge after resolving the unchecked CUDA API calls (flagged in a prior thread) that can silently produce a zero-block launch.

Prior review threads identified a P1 issue (unchecked cudaGetDevice/cudaOccupancyMaxActiveBlocksPerMultiprocessor leaving persistent_blocks at zero on failure, silently doing nothing). That issue appears unaddressed in this head SHA. New findings in this review are P2-only (dead tensor_id variable, shadowed constexpr declarations inside the lambda). The P1 ceiling caps confidence at 4.

transformer_engine/common/swizzle/swizzle.cu — persistent-grid launch block in the variable-shape path needs error-checked CUDA occupancy API calls.

Important Files Changed

Filename Overview
transformer_engine/common/swizzle/swizzle.cu Adds grouped_swizzle_scaling_variable_shape_kernel — a persistent-grid kernel that dispatches tiles to per-tensor swizzle impls via a linear scan. Contains dead tensor_id variable, shadowed constexpr declarations, and (from prior threads) unchecked CUDA occupancy API calls that can silently produce a zero-block launch.
transformer_engine/pytorch/csrc/extensions/swizzle.cpp Removes the uniform-shape guard that previously rejected variable first_dims/last_dims, enabling variable-shape grouped swizzle. The change is minimal and correct.
tests/cpp/test_common.cu Extends offsets vector from num_tensors to num_tensors + 1 entries, recording the total-size sentinel; kNVTEGroupedTensorOffsets is updated accordingly. Legitimate fix for prefix-sum completeness.
tests/cpp/operator/test_swizzle.cu Adds performTestGroupedSwizzleMXFP8Variable and a parameterized test suite covering single-tensor, two-tensor, mixed-shape, large, semi-variable-M, and semi-variable-K cases. Test structure mirrors the existing uniform-shape tests and verification logic looks correct.

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A[swizzle_grouped_scaling_factors] --> B{is_variable_shape?}
    B -- No --> C[Uniform shape fast path\nper-tensor 3D grid launch]
    B -- Yes --> D[Variable shape path]
    D --> E[Compute persistent_blocks\nvia cudaOccupancyMaxActiveBlocksPerMultiprocessor]
    E --> F[Launch persistent kernel\npersistent_blocks x TB_DIM squared]
    F --> G[Warp 0 computes total_blocks\nvia warp reduction into shared mem]
    G --> H[Persistent loop over linear_block_id]
    H --> I[Linear scan over tensors\nto resolve tensor_id and scale base offset]
    I --> J{rowwise?}
    J -- Yes --> K[swizzle_row_scaling_kernel_impl\nvec_load_size in 1 2 4]
    J -- No --> L[swizzle_col_scaling_kernel_impl\nvec_load_size in 1 2 4]
    K --> H
    L --> H
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Reviews (2): Last reviewed commit: "[pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-comm..." | Re-trigger Greptile

Comment on lines +1891 to +1903
int device_id;
cudaGetDevice(&device_id);
int num_SMs;
cudaDeviceGetAttribute(&num_SMs, cudaDevAttrMultiProcessorCount, device_id);
// Find out how many blocks of this specific kernel can fit on one SM
int max_active_blocks_per_sm;
cudaOccupancyMaxActiveBlocksPerMultiprocessor(
&max_active_blocks_per_sm,
grouped_swizzle_scaling_variable_shape_kernel<SF_TILE_DIM_M, SF_TILE_DIM_K>,
TB_DIM * TB_DIM, // block size
max_slm_size // dynamic shared memory
);
int persistent_blocks = num_SMs * max_active_blocks_per_sm;
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P1 Unchecked CUDA API calls can silently produce zero-block launches

cudaGetDevice, cudaDeviceGetAttribute, and cudaOccupancyMaxActiveBlocksPerMultiprocessor are all called without NVTE_CHECK_CUDA. If any of these fail, max_active_blocks_per_sm is left with an indeterminate (or zero) value, making persistent_blocks = 0. Launching the persistent kernel with 0 blocks is legal in CUDA — it silently does nothing — so the output buffer stays uninitialized with no error raised.

Suggested change
int device_id;
cudaGetDevice(&device_id);
int num_SMs;
cudaDeviceGetAttribute(&num_SMs, cudaDevAttrMultiProcessorCount, device_id);
// Find out how many blocks of this specific kernel can fit on one SM
int max_active_blocks_per_sm;
cudaOccupancyMaxActiveBlocksPerMultiprocessor(
&max_active_blocks_per_sm,
grouped_swizzle_scaling_variable_shape_kernel<SF_TILE_DIM_M, SF_TILE_DIM_K>,
TB_DIM * TB_DIM, // block size
max_slm_size // dynamic shared memory
);
int persistent_blocks = num_SMs * max_active_blocks_per_sm;
int device_id;
NVTE_CHECK_CUDA(cudaGetDevice(&device_id));
int num_SMs;
NVTE_CHECK_CUDA(cudaDeviceGetAttribute(&num_SMs, cudaDevAttrMultiProcessorCount, device_id));
// Find out how many blocks of this specific kernel can fit on one SM
int max_active_blocks_per_sm;
NVTE_CHECK_CUDA(cudaOccupancyMaxActiveBlocksPerMultiprocessor(
&max_active_blocks_per_sm,
grouped_swizzle_scaling_variable_shape_kernel<SF_TILE_DIM_M, SF_TILE_DIM_K>,
TB_DIM * TB_DIM, // block size
max_slm_size // dynamic shared memory
));
NVTE_CHECK(max_active_blocks_per_sm > 0, "Occupancy query returned 0 blocks per SM.");
int persistent_blocks = num_SMs * max_active_blocks_per_sm;

Comment on lines +1720 to +1724
if (!is_variable_shape) {
// Fallback to uniform shape implementation
NVTE_CHECK(input->all_same_shape(), "Grouped swizzle requires uniform tensor shapes.");
NVTE_CHECK(input->all_same_last_dim() && input->all_same_first_dim(),
"Grouped swizzle requires uniform tensor shapes.");
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P2 Dead code: redundant assertions inside !is_variable_shape branch

is_variable_shape is defined as !input->all_same_shape(), so inside if (!is_variable_shape) the two NVTE_CHECK calls are tautologies — they can never fire. They add noise and could mislead future readers into thinking the branch can handle non-uniform shapes. Consider removing them or converting them to a comment.

Suggested change
if (!is_variable_shape) {
// Fallback to uniform shape implementation
NVTE_CHECK(input->all_same_shape(), "Grouped swizzle requires uniform tensor shapes.");
NVTE_CHECK(input->all_same_last_dim() && input->all_same_first_dim(),
"Grouped swizzle requires uniform tensor shapes.");
if (!is_variable_shape) {
// All tensors share the same shape; use the optimised uniform-shape path.

if (int_stride % 2 != 0) int_stride++;
int* d_block_offsets = reinterpret_cast<int*>(workspace);
int* d_global_counter = d_block_offsets + num_tensors + 1;
int* d_total_blocks = d_global_counter + 1;
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P2 d_total_blocks is written but never consumed

d_total_blocks is populated by compute_grouped_swizzle_setup (as *total_blocks = current_block_offset) but is never read by the persistent kernel or any host code afterward. The persistent grid terminates via the tensor_id == -1 sentinel, not via a stored total. If this field was intended as a diagnostic or future guard, a comment would clarify its purpose; otherwise it can be removed to avoid confusing future maintainers and wasting a device-side write.

Comment on lines +402 to +412
size_t num_tensors = input.num_tensors();
size_t num_int_elems = num_tensors + 3; // n+1 block_offsets + gc + tb
if (num_int_elems % 2 != 0) num_int_elems++; // pad to even for size_t alignment
size_t workspace_size = num_int_elems * sizeof(int) + (num_tensors + 1) * sizeof(size_t);
workspace_size = roundup(workspace_size, 256);
auto workspace =
allocateSpace(std::vector<size_t>{workspace_size}, transformer_engine::DType::kByte, false);

NVTE_SCOPED_GIL_RELEASE({
nvte_swizzle_grouped_scaling_factors(swizzle_input.data(), swizzle_output.data(),
at::cuda::getCurrentCUDAStream());
getDataPtr(workspace), at::cuda::getCurrentCUDAStream());
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P2 Workspace allocated unconditionally even for uniform-shape inputs

The workspace is only consumed by the variable-shape code path in swizzle_grouped_scaling_factors. For uniform shapes the pointer is accepted but immediately ignored. Gating the allocation on whether variable shapes are present (e.g., first_dims.data_ptr != nullptr || last_dims.data_ptr != nullptr) would avoid a small but unnecessary device allocation on every invocation with uniform tensors. This is a performance suggestion, not a correctness issue.

Note: If this suggestion doesn't match your team's coding style, reply to this and let me know. I'll remember it for next time!

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Agreed

@vthumbe1503 vthumbe1503 self-requested a review April 22, 2026 22:33
cudaFuncAttributeMaxDynamicSharedMemorySize, max_slm_size));

int device_id;
cudaGetDevice(&device_id);
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Caching the attrbues like number of sms and max active blocks per device would be ideal to reduce CPU overheads on each call.

We already have a function in transformer_engine/common/util/cuda_runtime.cpp called "sm_count". Could you please use that here?

// Fallback to uniform shape implementation
NVTE_CHECK(input->all_same_shape(), "Grouped swizzle requires uniform tensor shapes.");
NVTE_CHECK(input->all_same_last_dim() && input->all_same_first_dim(),
"Grouped swizzle requires uniform tensor shapes.");
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These checks might not be needed. Given we used input->all_same_shape() to reach this stage

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I think that workspace allocation + small kernel for computing offsets + persistent kernel might be an overkill for swizzling. @int-smart Do you have some performance numbers by any chance for the swizzling kernel on Blackwell?

How about we follow a SM filling grid pattern like in grouped_bias_add kernel in this PR?
https://github.com/NVIDIA/TransformerEngine/pull/2885/changes/BASE..b64559af9b89d816b8d7ffba4f5273e556d90c8e#diff-fa75cbeb11caf588f79b811be355c8f00b0cf5d4b807c259b94f2a40ffc8db6f

With this pattern thread block id is dynamically decided based on sum(first_dims) and at the same time we divide the rows of grouped_tensor uniformly among the SMs. However it only handles variable first_dims(Need to extend the idea for other cases like all dims being variable)

@vthumbe1503 vthumbe1503 self-assigned this Apr 22, 2026
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@vthumbe1503 Will check the PR and get back

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int-smart commented Apr 22, 2026

With regards to Blackwell I dont have the numbers tbh. I can generate it for RTX 40 series

int-smart and others added 2 commits April 25, 2026 15:55
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int-smart commented Apr 25, 2026

@vthumbe1503 Consolidated to one kernel, removed shared memory allocation and tried to stick to the PR you mentioned. If this works let me know. Seems to perform better on rtx 4070 than my last approach. There are still some optimizations can be done but that would need more shared memory alloc.

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Grouped swizzle kernel

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