feat(vector): fuse the BBQ rerank distance kernels - #391
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farhan-syah
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Thanks. All ten points of the 2026-09-27 review are addressed, and the kernels are correct on every tier I traced: every load stays inside the guarded length, dim 0 and tails fall through to the bounds-checked scalar path, the lane-mask bit order is MSB-first on all four tiers, and there are no uninitialised reads. The zero-allocation claim holds by inspection. Three things block the merge; the rest is follow-up.
Blocking
1. The x86 tier functions are safe pub fns that can cause UB.
avx2::l2_bbq (distance/simd/avx2.rs:121) and avx512::l2_bbq (distance/simd/avx512.rs:106) call a #[target_feature] function after checking only the slice shapes. distance and simd::{avx2, avx512} are public, so safe code on an AVX2-only host can call nodedb_vector::distance::simd::avx512::l2_bbq(...) and execute AVX-512 instructions. That is the same class of defect as the length blocker, one step over: the shape is guarded, the CPU is not. The tests show it: // SAFETY: feature bit checked above. sits on safe calls (distance/simd/bbq.rs:206, :216, :240).
The existing l2_squared / cosine_distance / neg_inner_product in those two modules share the defect.
Fix: in distance/simd/mod.rs, make avx2 and avx512 pub(crate). Nothing outside the crate names them (nodedb and nodedb-lite have no caller); SimdRuntime::detect() and the in-crate tests still reach them. Then drop the // SAFETY: comments on the safe calls. neon (baseline on aarch64) and wasm_simd128 (compile-time gated) are sound as they are.
2. The new fluxbench dev-dependency makes the wasm tier untestable.
nodedb-vector/Cargo.toml:47 adds fluxbench under unconditional [dev-dependencies]; it pulls tokio, which does not build for wasm. That is why the crate's wasm tests cannot build (your "Known gaps"), so wasm_simd128_tier_matches_the_reference never runs — and this PR also switches wasm l2_squared / cosine_distance / neg_inner_product from scalar to the SIMD kernels, so those go untested too.
Fix: move it to [target.'cfg(not(target_arch = "wasm32"))'.dev-dependencies]. The wasm lib tests can then build under a wasm runner.
3. distance_prepared never checks the candidate header.
rerank/codecs/bbq.rs:174 reads the candidate through from_bytes but never compares header.dim or header.quant_mode with the codec. A stored candidate from another dimension or codec whose buffer is long enough yields a silently wrong distance. This predates the PR, but the PR rewrites this function, and a silently wrong result is not acceptable. Return RerankError::BadInput on a mismatch. While there, payload_len (:40) computes 4 + dim * 4 unchecked; use checked arithmetic.
Non-blocking
- CI claim.
distance/simd/bbq.rs:9-11: both jobs in.github/workflows/test.ymlrun onubuntu-24.04-arm(lines 39 and 108), so CI runs only the NEON tier — neither x86 tier, AVX2 included. Say that, and that the x86 tiers run only on an x86_64 host (AVX-512 only on hardware or SDE).bbq.rs:176says "512-bit tiers" (plural); one remains. - NEON load alignment.
neon.rs:141-142passes a*const f32cast from an arbitrary&[u8]offset tovld1q_f32. It works with today's stdarch, but alignment is not a documented guarantee of that intrinsic.vreinterpretq_f32_u8(vld1q_u8(ptr))is byte-aligned by definition. - Big-endian aarch64.
runtime.rs:112selectsneon::l2_bbqon anyaarch64, includingaarch64_be, where reinterpreting the little-endian payload gives wrong distances. The tests are gatedtarget_endian = "little", which hides it. Select the scalar kernel whentarget_endian = "big". - Bench.
benches/bbq_kernel.rs:setup()(codec train plus 256 encodes) runs inside each bench function (line 71 and siblings); keep that state inthread_local!so only the kernel is timed. The unfused baseline ignoresresidual_normand hard-codes offset 32, so it is an approximation of the old path. The doc comments describe history ("the path it replaces", "the removed path shape", lines 3-9 and 48); describe the baseline as what it is. Please re-run on42abd92f7or drop the 7.3× / 10.3× figures from the body. - Scope in the PR body.
wasm_simd128.rswas undeclared onmain; this PR declares it and moves the wasm f32 kernels from scalar to SIMD indetect()(runtime.rs:120-134). That is correct — say so in the body. - Nits.
runtime.rssays "Fused BBQ kernels" (plural) on one field. The x86 tier testsreturnearly and report PASS on a host without the feature.
Your two questions
The wasm simd128 tier: keep it. The gap is the Lite build, not this tier. nodedb-lite sets no simd128 anywhere (the shipped artifact is wasm-pack build --target web --release nodedb-lite-wasm with no flags), and nodedb-query's wasm SIMD tiers compile out of it the same way. Enabling +simd128 for the Lite wasm build is a follow-up in the Lite repo, not a blocker here.
AVX-512 verified under SDE only: acceptable for this PR; every other AVX-512 kernel in the repo is tested the same way. The real gap is wider — CI never runs any x86 SIMD code — and belongs in a separate workspace-wide x86_64 job (native AVX2 plus an sde64 -spr pass). Not your PR's job.
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All three blockers and the non-blocking list are addressed, rebuilt into one commit ( Blocking1. x86 tier functions were safe 2. The wasm lib suite now builds and runs: 374 passed, 0 failed on One caveat I want to state rather than bury: I removed the 3. Non-blocking
Your two questionsBoth taken, thank you: the wasm tier stays (the gap is the Lite build, and enabling Evidence on |
farhan-syah
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Requesting changes for one clippy error. All ten points from the previous review landed.
Previous review
| Point | Status |
|---|---|
B1: avx2 / avx512 crate-private, // SAFETY: removed from safe calls |
Landed |
B2: fluxbench non-wasm dev-dependency |
Landed |
B3: candidate header.dim / quant_mode checks, checked payload_len |
Landed, with two rejection tests and a value test |
CI claim in the bbq.rs module doc |
Landed |
| NEON unaligned load | Landed |
| Big-endian aarch64 dispatch | Landed |
| Bench fixtures, baseline wording, re-run figures | Landed |
| Scope stated in the PR body | Landed |
| Nits | Landed. The x86 early return is now documented, which is enough. |
What I ran on 64aa6f1eb
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
cargo fmt --all --check |
clean |
cargo nextest run -p nodedb-vector |
508 passed, 0 failed |
cargo clippy -p nodedb-vector --all-targets -- -D warnings (rustc 1.98.1 stable) |
1 error |
Blocking
rerank/codecs/bbq.rs:309 fails clippy::chunks_exact_to_as_chunks. Details inline.
test.yml runs clippy on stable with -D warnings, so CI fails on this line. Your clippy run used an older toolchain that lacks the lint.
This is the last blocker. Fix it and the PR is ready to approve.
| let residual_norm = f32::from_le_bytes([enc[8], enc[9], enc[10], enc[11]]); | ||
| let packed = &enc[32..32 + DIM.div_ceil(8)]; | ||
| let centered: Vec<f64> = payload[4..] | ||
| .chunks_exact(4) |
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clippy::chunks_exact_to_as_chunks rejects this on stable (rustc 1.98.1):
error: using `chunks_exact` with a constant chunk size
--> nodedb-vector/src/rerank/codecs/bbq.rs:309:14
= note: `-D clippy::chunks-exact-to-as-chunks` implied by `-D warnings`
Replace it with .as_chunks::<4>().0.iter(). The removed decode_payload used the same form.
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Fixed, and verified under the toolchain that caught it. Rebuilt as one commit ( The blocker
Why my run missed it — both causes are mine to fixToolchain. My local clippy was Clean, so the fix holds under the toolchain that rejected it. Scope. CI runs the whole workspace; you ran Also in this revisionCI coverage for this crate (the one non-code change). Test Suite run locally. Since it is opt-in and this PR carries no label, I ran its exact command on One requestCould a maintainer add the |
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Correction to the CI change I described in my last comment, pushed as I had widened So I reverted Everything else in Still happy to split the workflow into its own PR if you would rather keep this one to the kernel — it is the one change here that is not about the code. |
farhan-syah
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The clippy fix landed. cargo clippy -p nodedb-vector --all-targets -- -D warnings is clean on rustc 1.98.1, and cargo nextest run -p nodedb-vector passes 508/508.
Blocking
Remove .github/workflows/wasm-vector.yml from this PR. Do not move it to a separate PR either. We do not want this workflow.
wasm32-wasip1is the wrong target. Lite shipsnodedb-vectoronwasm32-unknown-unknownthroughnodedb-lite-wasm.- The reason given for
wasip1is wrong.nodedb-vectorbuilds forwasm32-unknown-unknownoncegetrandomhas a JS backend. The missing backend comes fromnodedb-types(aes-gcm→rand_core→getrandom0.2), not from this crate. - This PR is the fused kernel. CI changes are out of scope.
With the workflow removed, this is ready to approve.
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Removed. You are right on the diagnosis, and I verified it rather than taking it on trust: The 0.2 copy arrives through CI changes were out of scope and I should have left the observation as a comment instead of acting on it. That is the second CI claim I have had to withdraw on this PR — the first was the The PR is code only now: |
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CI's Test Suite came back red on this head, in What failed — two
Both are Raft membership/leadership assertions. The panic is: Evidence that it is pre-existing:
Everything else on this head is green: I am not proposing to fix it in this PR — it is a cluster-test flake in |
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Rebase from main #392 is green. |
…table
Reranking against 1-bit BBQ candidates materialized a `Vec<f32>` per candidate
and per query; at an oversample x ef candidate count that dominated the pass and
defeated SIMD.
The kernel now reads the centred query straight from the prepared payload bytes:
zero allocation per candidate and per query, one pass. It is a `SimdRuntime`
field (`l2_bbq`), selected in `detect()` beside the f16/bf16 fused kernels, with
the per-tier kernels beside their siblings in
`distance/simd/{avx512,avx2,neon,wasm_simd128}.rs`.
Every safe entry point validates both byte slices against `dim` before any
pointer arithmetic (`bbq::assert_payload_shapes`): dispatch guarantees the host's
features, never the shape of the data. Each tier carries a `should_panic` case on
that guard, and the crate's `simd_length_safety` suite gains the same contract for
the dispatched kernel.
The x86 tier modules are `pub(crate)`. Their entry points are safe `pub fn`s that
call `#[target_feature]` implementations, so exporting them would let safe code
outside the crate execute AVX2 or AVX-512 on a host that does not have it.
`SimdRuntime::detect()` is the only supported way to reach a tier, and it selects
one under a runtime feature probe.
`fluxbench` moves to the non-wasm dev-dependency set. It pulls `tokio`, which does
not build for wasm32, so the crate's own wasm unit tests could not be built at
all — and this change moves the wasm f32 kernels from scalar to SIMD, which would
have left them unverified. With the dev-dependency gated, the wasm lib suite
builds and runs: 374 pass on wasm32-wasip1 +simd128 under Node's WASI runner,
including the simd128 tier parity test.
`distance_prepared` rejects a candidate whose header names another dimension or
another quantizer instead of scoring it, and the prepared-payload length is
computed with checked arithmetic. A candidate buffer long enough to parse is not
proof that it belongs to this codec.
The wasm simd128 arm is wired into `detect()` and not merely compiled, gated on
the same compile-time condition as the tier module, since wasm has no runtime
feature probe. The NEON arm is gated to little-endian aarch64 because it
reinterprets the little-endian payload; its loads go through `vld1q_u8` plus
`vreinterpretq_f32_u8` so they do not depend on 4-byte alignment.
Evidence on the host (avx2+fma): `cargo nextest run -p nodedb-vector
--all-features --cargo-profile ci --profile ci` passes 468 tests with no
failures; the wasm lib suite passes 374 under Node's WASI runner; `cargo check
--workspace --all-features` is clean; `cargo fmt --all --check` and `cargo clippy
-p nodedb-vector --profile ci --all-targets -- -D warnings` are clean; the crate
checks for `aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu` and for `wasm32-wasip1` with and without
`+simd128`. Both jobs in CI run on `ubuntu-24.04-arm`, so CI exercises the NEON
tier and no x86 tier; the x86 tiers are checked on an x86_64 host, and the
512-bit tier under Intel SDE. No big-endian aarch64 target ships a prebuilt std,
so that path is not compiled here.
Benches against the reconstruct-and-measure baseline, re-run on this revision:
6.4x at dim 128 and 10.2x at dim 768, the fused path reporting zero allocations
and the baseline one `Vec<f32>` per candidate. The baseline approximates the
pre-fusion pass (fixed 1/sqrt(dim) scale, fixed header offset), so the ratio is
indicative rather than exact.
The AVX10/256 arm the first revision carried is gone: `AVX512VL` implies
`AVX512F`, so no host could reach it while AVX10 detection is absent from
`std::arch`.
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Rebased onto current Conflicts: none. Only two of my files overlapped anything on Re-validated on the rebased tree:
The diff against One note on the earlier CI result: the |
Why
Rerank against 1-bit BBQ candidates materialized a
Vec<f32>per candidate (and per query). At anoversample × efcandidate count that dominated the pass and defeated SIMD. This is the fused-kernel work of #280.What
l2_bbqis aSimdRuntimefield indistance/simd/runtime.rs, selected inSimdRuntime::detect()besidel2_squared_f16/l2_squared_bf16. Order:avx512→avx2+fma→neon→wasm-simd128(wasm32 + simd128 only) →scalardimbefore any pointer arithmetic. Reading the centered query out of raw payload bytes means a short slice would otherwise be a read past the end, and dispatch guarantees the host's features, never the shape of the data. One shared guard,bbq::assert_payload_shapes, is called by the scalar kernel and all four tiers;saturating_mulkeepsdim * 4from wrapping past the checksimd::avx2andsimd::avx512arepub(crate). Their entry points are safepub fns calling#[target_feature]implementations, so exposing the modules let safe code outside the crate execute AVX2 or AVX-512 on a host without it.SimdRuntime::detect()is the only supported way to reach a tier;neonandwasm_simd128stay public, being baseline and compile-time gated respectivelydistance_preparedrejects a candidate whose header names another dimension or quantizer rather than scoring it, and the prepared-payload length uses checked arithmetic. A buffer long enough to parse is not proof it belongs to this codecfluxbenchis a non-wasm dev-dependency. It pullstokio, which does not build for wasm32, so the crate's wasm unit tests could not be built at all — and this PR moves the wasm f32 kernels from scalar to SIMD, which would have left them unverifiedwasm_simd128was undeclared onmain, and this PR declares the module and adds thedetect()arm, gated on the same compile-time condition as the tier modulevld1q_u8+vreinterpretq_f32_u8so they do not depend on 4-byte alignmentdecode_payload/ the old dequantize path are removedValidation
Run under
cargo nextest, which is what this repo requires.cargo nextest run -p nodedb-vector --all-features --cargo-profile ci --profile cicargo nextest run --workspace --exclude nodedb-cluster-tests --all-features --cargo-profile ci --profile ciwasm32-wasip1+simd128, under Node's WASI runnercargo check --workspace --all-features --profile cicargo fmt --all --checkcargo clippy --workspace --all-targets --all-features --profile ci -- -D warnings(stable 1.98.1)nodedb-preflight.sh <repo> origin/maincargo check -p nodedb-vector --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnucargo check -p nodedb-vector --target wasm32-wasip1with and without+simd128The guard and the seam are pinned by tests checked by mutation, not by green alone: deleting the guard from
avx2::l2_bbqmakessimd_length_safety::bbq_rejects_short_slicesdie with SIGSEGV — the original blocker reproducing itself — and shifting the seam to&payload[0..]makesdistance_prepared_matches_the_unfused_l2fail. Two further tests cover the header checks, one from a codec of another dimension and one with a patched quant mode.The wasm tier parity test now executes:
wasm_simd128_tier_matches_the_reference ... okunder the WASI runner, which was not possible before the dev-dependency fix.Tier coverage — what CI does and does not run
Both jobs in
.github/workflows/test.ymlrun onubuntu-24.04-arm, so CI exercises the NEON tier and no x86 tier. The x86 tiers are checked on an x86_64 host; the 512-bit tier additionally needs hardware or Intel SDE (sde64 -spr). Each x86 test returns early, with a printed note, on a host lacking the feature its tier needs. Closing the wider gap — CI running no x86 SIMD at all — is a workspace-level job, not this PR's.Benchmarks
Re-measured on the rebased head (fluxbench, the repo norm), against a reconstruct-and-measure baseline:
A repeat run gave 9.4 µs at dim 128 (6.4×), so the dim-128 ratio is noisy at roughly 6.1–6.4×; dim 768 is stable at ~10×. Allocation tracking is installed: the fused path reports zero allocations, the baseline one
Vec<f32>per candidate (13,107,200 B over 25,600 allocations at dim 128; 78,643,200 B at dim 768). Fixtures are built once per thread, outside the timed region.The baseline approximates the pre-fusion pass rather than reproducing it — it uses a fixed
1/√dimscale instead of the candidate's stored corrective factor and reads the sign bits at a fixed header offset — so the ratio is indicative, not exact.Known gaps (not covered by this PR)
std, so the scalar-fallback path there is not compiled heretests/vector_suite) cannot build for wasm32: it targetscollection, which is non-wasm by design. The lib tests do build and runTesting the 512-bit tier locally (no 512-bit hardware needed)
Intel SDE emulates the 512-bit paths — the same release rust-lang pins in its stdarch CI:
curl -LO https://ci-mirrors.rust-lang.org/sde-external-10.8.0-2026-03-15-lin.tar.xz tar xf sde-external-10.8.0-2026-03-15-lin.tar.xz -C /opt CARGO_TARGET_X86_64_UNKNOWN_LINUX_GNU_RUNNER="/opt/sde-external-10.8.0-2026-03-15-lin/sde64 -spr --" \ cargo nextest run -p nodedb-vector --lib distance::simd::bbqCloses #280