BigMoeOnEdge/docs
Raffaele 3170385fad
feat(prefill): the NPU prefill reads only routed experts (+ --decide-probe); 0.28.0 (#208)
The NPU prefill's expert arena read every expert of every layer ahead of its
routing. It now reads, ahead of a layer's routing, the experts the previous
graph routed there, and at the routing node whatever the routing adds. The
matmul reads only routed experts, so the output is bit for bit the same. A layer
routing more than --prefill-routed-full (0.85) of its experts gets the next one
read whole; --no-prefill-routed restores whole layers everywhere.

Phone, Hexagon v81 NPU, top-4, same session, every answer identical:
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B Q4_0 7.68 -> 4.16 s, Q4_K_M 9.95 -> 5.37 s, Gemma 4 26B-A4B
Q4_K_M 6.69 -> 3.70 s, Nemotron 3.5 30B-A3B Q4_0 7.42 -> 6.81 s.

Also: --decide-probe (experimental per-decision expert usage and layer-exit
answers), BMOE_DECIDE prefill_dev_* counters, gates G17f/G17g, app 0.28.0.
2026-09-29 16:08:23 +02:00
..
assets docs(assets): label the Qwen3.8-Flash-Next hero clip like the DeepSeek one 2026-08-30 17:35:24 +02:00
bench-data feat(prefill): the NPU prefill reads only routed experts (+ --decide-probe); 0.28.0 (#208) 2026-09-29 16:08:23 +02:00
adding-a-model.md feat(moe): Nemotron 3.5 (nemotron_h_moe) and Ornith 1.5 support (#203) 2026-09-28 09:34:42 +02:00
android-memory.md feat(moe): hold back dense tensors larger than RAM under every mode (#174) 2026-08-28 10:20:13 +02:00
architecture.md feat(prefill): the NPU prefill reads only routed experts (+ --decide-probe); 0.28.0 (#208) 2026-09-29 16:08:23 +02:00
benchmark-method.md docs: correct the macOS platform status after F_NOCACHE and the CI job 2026-08-29 19:11:31 +02:00
benchmarks-gpt-oss.md docs: record the expert-sidecar negative result and ship the --scatter microbench 2026-07-20 17:02:48 +02:00
benchmarks.md docs: benchmark pages as a contributor guide, and the Apple platform limits 2026-08-28 16:53:22 +02:00
cache-aware-substitution.md feat(moe): cache-aware expert substitution (--expert-substitute, experimental) and --ppl (#171) 2026-08-29 10:13:47 +02:00
cache-sizing.md feat(cli): say which mode a run used, and give --moe-stream a cache by default (#187) 2026-08-29 20:42:17 +02:00
community-benchmarks.md fix(scripts): bench-report model size and storage probe (du on the raw path) (#194) 2026-08-31 12:48:09 +02:00
decide.md feat(prefill): the NPU prefill reads only routed experts (+ --decide-probe); 0.28.0 (#208) 2026-09-29 16:08:23 +02:00
expert-dropping.md feat(moe): cache-aware expert substitution (--expert-substitute, experimental) and --ppl (#171) 2026-08-29 10:13:47 +02:00
expert-prediction.md feat(moe): measure how predictable expert routing is, then act on it — and refute it (#101) 2026-07-28 09:21:41 +02:00
limitations.md feat(moe): Nemotron 3.5 (nemotron_h_moe) and Ornith 1.5 support (#203) 2026-09-28 09:34:42 +02:00
moe-streaming.md feat(io): release the model file's mapping after load (--release-mmap) (#185) 2026-09-07 20:43:02 +02:00
mtp.md feat(engine): self-speculative decoding — the model's own MTP head, or n-gram lookup (#134) 2026-08-02 00:09:39 +02:00
ngram.md feat(engine): self-speculative decoding — the model's own MTP head, or n-gram lookup (#134) 2026-08-02 00:09:39 +02:00
npu-prefill.md feat(prefill): the NPU prefill reads only routed experts (+ --decide-probe); 0.28.0 (#208) 2026-09-29 16:08:23 +02:00
prefetch.md feat(moe): measure how predictable expert routing is, then act on it — and refute it (#101) 2026-07-28 09:21:41 +02:00
pressure.md feat(moe): --drop-cold-experts — spend quality only where it buys I/O (#95) 2026-07-22 17:21:55 +02:00
README.md feat: --decide, choose from a list from one prefill, with no decode (#201) 2026-09-28 12:01:25 +02:00
roadmap.md feat(moe): Nemotron 3.5 (nemotron_h_moe) and Ornith 1.5 support (#203) 2026-09-28 09:34:42 +02:00
route-ahead.md feat(engine): --route-ahead N — commit decode routing to the N-layers-early prediction (#142) 2026-08-02 00:26:38 +02:00
row-gathered-tables.md feat(moe): serve row-gathered dense tables from flash (--row-stream) (#180) 2026-08-29 10:04:02 +02:00
seam.md feat: prefill on the NPU, decode on the CPU (--prefill-device), in the release APK (#200) 2026-09-28 09:52:46 +02:00
session.md perf(cli): BMOE_PROGRESS carries the answer as a delta, not cumulatively (#127) 2026-07-28 15:38:34 +02:00
telemetry.md feat(prefill): the NPU prefill reads only routed experts (+ --decide-probe); 0.28.0 (#208) 2026-09-29 16:08:23 +02:00
warmup-analysis.md docs: correct the benchmark recipe, the arch list and mismatched sizes 2026-07-19 11:27:18 +02:00

Documentation

Start with architecture.md for the layer map, or moe-streaming.md for the idea the project is built on.

Understanding the design

Doc What it answers
architecture.md How the layers fit together, and why llama.cpp is not forked.
moe-streaming.md Why streaming experts from flash makes a >RAM model run at all.
seam.md The exact contract with llama.cpp's public API, and how to upgrade the submodule.
limitations.md What this does not do, what it cannot do, and the prior art it builds on.
roadmap.md Themes worth exploring next.

Using and extending it

Doc What it answers
adding-a-model.md How to support a new MoE architecture (a recipe row plus a gate).
telemetry.md The BMOE_* line protocol and CSV schema — the integration contract.
session.md Session lifecycle, KV prefix reuse, cancellation.
decide.md --decide: picking one of a list of choices from a single prefill, with no decode, and keeping the state after a shared prefix between calls.
cache-sizing.md --cache-mb auto, the cache ceiling, and dense warm-up.
prefetch.md --prefetch K: the design and why it cannot change output (with the lossy knobs off).
expert-dropping.md --drop-cold-experts F: spending quality only where it buys a flash read, and why a cache-dependent setting's output is not reproducible.
row-gathered-tables.md --row-stream: serving a dense table the graph only gathers rows from out of flash, and how the engine decides which tables those are without naming one.
cache-aware-substitution.md --expert-substitute L: re-ranking a routing toward the experts already in the cache, the paper it comes from, and why a wide scoring batch cannot price it.
mtp.md --mtp: drafting with the model's own MTP head and verifying a whole group per decode — lossless by construction, and why a wider decode can lose in the streamed regime.
ngram.md --ngram: drafting from text that repeats, with no head and no draft decode — and why a source that abstains costs exactly an unspeculated step.
expert-prediction.md --predict-log: how much of a routing can be known a layer early, measured against the predictor --prefetch already bets on — and why a good score still would not mean a faster decode.
route-ahead.md --route-ahead N: committing the routing to the N-layers-early prediction, so a prefetch of it can never miss — and what that costs in quality (experimental, lossy).
npu-prefill.md --prefill-device: prefill on the NPU and decode on the CPU, a model larger than RAM fed to the NPU two layers at a time, and why decode stays on the CPU.
android-memory.md What reclaims the engine's memory on a phone, which levers exist (almost none), and why the cache hit rate is what the kernel judges you by.
pressure.md Cache policy under memory pressure: why an unaffordable budget starts a reclaim war, why the adaptive governor was retired, and what the fixed --cache-mb / --dense-weights levers do.

Measurements

Doc What it answers
benchmarks.md Measured results per model on Android, with device-pressure numbers.
benchmarks-gpt-oss.md gpt-oss-120b: a 58 GB model at 5.2× device RAM, and what it costs.
benchmark-method.md How to measure this engine on any machine: what each knob does, when to move it, and the rules that keep a matrix honest.
community-benchmarks.md Results on hardware we do not own, the one-command protocol (scripts/bench-report.sh), and how to submit a row.
warmup-analysis.md Why first tokens are slow, and the two regimes behind it.
bench-data/ Raw per-run CSVs and session notes. A dated archive — see its README.

Every benchmark figure in these docs is measured on the hardware named beside it. If you re-measure, update benchmark-method.md and the affected table together.