FTTN: Feature-Targeted Testing for Numerical Properties of NVIDIA & AMD Matrix Accelerators

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Li, Xinyi, Li, Ang, Fang, Bo, Swirydowicz, Katarzyna, Laguna, Ignacio, Gopalakrishnan, Ganesh
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Li, Xinyi
Li, Ang
Fang, Bo
Swirydowicz, Katarzyna
Laguna, Ignacio
Gopalakrishnan, Ganesh
author_facet Li, Xinyi
Li, Ang
Fang, Bo
Swirydowicz, Katarzyna
Laguna, Ignacio
Gopalakrishnan, Ganesh
contents NVIDIA Tensor Cores and AMD Matrix Cores (together called Matrix Accelerators) are of growing interest in high-performance computing and machine learning owing to their high performance. Unfortunately, their numerical behaviors are not publicly documented, including the number of extra precision bits maintained, the accumulation order of addition, and predictable subnormal number handling during computations. This makes it impossible to reliably port codes across these differing accelerators. This paper contributes a collection of {\em Feature Targeted Tests for Numerical Properties} that that help determine these features across five floating-point formats, four rounding modes and additional that highlight the rounding behaviors and preservation of extra precision bits. To show the practical relevance of FTTN, we design a simple matrix-multiplication test designed with insights gathered from our feature-tests. We executed this very simple test on five platforms, producing different answers: V100, A100, and MI250X produced 0, MI100 produced 255.875, and Hopper H100 produced 191.875. Our matrix multiplication tests employ patterns found in iterative refinement-based algorithms, highlighting the need to check for significant result variability when porting code across GPUs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_00232
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle FTTN: Feature-Targeted Testing for Numerical Properties of NVIDIA & AMD Matrix Accelerators
Li, Xinyi
Li, Ang
Fang, Bo
Swirydowicz, Katarzyna
Laguna, Ignacio
Gopalakrishnan, Ganesh
Hardware Architecture
NVIDIA Tensor Cores and AMD Matrix Cores (together called Matrix Accelerators) are of growing interest in high-performance computing and machine learning owing to their high performance. Unfortunately, their numerical behaviors are not publicly documented, including the number of extra precision bits maintained, the accumulation order of addition, and predictable subnormal number handling during computations. This makes it impossible to reliably port codes across these differing accelerators. This paper contributes a collection of {\em Feature Targeted Tests for Numerical Properties} that that help determine these features across five floating-point formats, four rounding modes and additional that highlight the rounding behaviors and preservation of extra precision bits. To show the practical relevance of FTTN, we design a simple matrix-multiplication test designed with insights gathered from our feature-tests. We executed this very simple test on five platforms, producing different answers: V100, A100, and MI250X produced 0, MI100 produced 255.875, and Hopper H100 produced 191.875. Our matrix multiplication tests employ patterns found in iterative refinement-based algorithms, highlighting the need to check for significant result variability when porting code across GPUs.
title FTTN: Feature-Targeted Testing for Numerical Properties of NVIDIA & AMD Matrix Accelerators
topic Hardware Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.00232