NVIDIA / NVIDIA/cutlass

[QST] Why only N={64, 128, 192, 256} is supported for mxf8f6f4 GeMM?

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Description

What is your question?

I'm looking through the CUTLASS 3.9 source code and how gemm of mx types works on Blackwell hardware.

First off, I find tcgen05.mma.mxf8f6f4 supports {8,16,24,…,256} for 1SM mma and {16, 32, 48, ..., 256} for 2SM mma, which is reflected in CUTLASS API that those Ns are supported for non-blockscaled types (e.g., f8f6f4) in Collective builders. However, I can't see why Ns are restricted so only a few of those are supported like:

sm100_make_blockscaled_1sm_trivial_tiled_mma() {
  // ...

  // Do not allow a tiled MMA N mode > 1, as that is not reasonable.
  constexpr int N = cute::size<1>(TileShape_MNK{});
  static_assert(N == 64 || N == 128 || N == 192 || N == 256, "Invalid TileShape_N.");

I'm fine-tuning my gemm library with a large range of N values that fits best for fully occupying SMs. So this restriction comes short for this end.

Plus, is it a good practice to place a weight into B and an activation into A in a FC layer?

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Research direction

Start with sm100_make_blockscaled_1sm_trivial_tiled_mma() in the CUTLASS 3.9 source and inspect the TileShape_N static assertion alongside the mxf8f6f4 1SM and 2SM constraints described in the issue. Determine whether wider N support and the A/B weight-activation arrangement are intended changes; done would require a maintainer-backed explanation or a clearly scoped design for altering the restriction.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
hpc, performance
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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