Quant-dLLM: Post-Training Extreme Low-Bit Quantization for Diffusion Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Tianao, Li, Zhiteng, Yan, Xianglong, Qin, Haotong, Guo, Yong, Zhang, Yulun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zhang, Tianao
Li, Zhiteng
Yan, Xianglong
Qin, Haotong
Guo, Yong
Zhang, Yulun
author_facet Zhang, Tianao
Li, Zhiteng
Yan, Xianglong
Qin, Haotong
Guo, Yong
Zhang, Yulun
contents Diffusion large language models (dLLMs), which offer bidirectional context and flexible masked-denoising generation, are emerging as a compelling alternative to autoregressive (AR) LLMs. However, like AR LLMs, their model sizes continue to grow, motivating weight compression for deployment. Although post-training quantization (PTQ) is effective for AR LLMs, directly transferring it to dLLMs at 2-bit leads to unsatisfactory performance. To tackle these challenges, we propose Quant-dLLM, an ultra-low-bit PTQ framework tailored to dLLMs. Since masked-denoising activations in dLLMs differ from the fully visible signals assumed by standard PTQ methods, we introduce Masked Calibration Simulation (MCS) to align calibration with the timestep-dependent masking, which yields more reliable calibrations. Moreover, we propose a Data-aware Any-order Quantizer (DAQ) that learns ultra-low-bit weight representations via an optimization algorithm. It performs iterative approximation guided by our simulated calibration data. In addition, under a strict 2-bit budget, we introduce Adaptive Blockwise Mixed Precision (ABMP), a sensitivity-based precision allocation scheme that adaptively assigns bit width across channel groups. When restricted to 2-bit precision, Quant-dLLM consistently achieves higher accuracy than state-of-the-art (SOTA) AR-transfer PTQ methods on dLLMs. The code and models will be available at: https://github.com/ZTA2785/Quant-dLLM.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_03274
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quant-dLLM: Post-Training Extreme Low-Bit Quantization for Diffusion Large Language Models
Zhang, Tianao
Li, Zhiteng
Yan, Xianglong
Qin, Haotong
Guo, Yong
Zhang, Yulun
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Diffusion large language models (dLLMs), which offer bidirectional context and flexible masked-denoising generation, are emerging as a compelling alternative to autoregressive (AR) LLMs. However, like AR LLMs, their model sizes continue to grow, motivating weight compression for deployment. Although post-training quantization (PTQ) is effective for AR LLMs, directly transferring it to dLLMs at 2-bit leads to unsatisfactory performance. To tackle these challenges, we propose Quant-dLLM, an ultra-low-bit PTQ framework tailored to dLLMs. Since masked-denoising activations in dLLMs differ from the fully visible signals assumed by standard PTQ methods, we introduce Masked Calibration Simulation (MCS) to align calibration with the timestep-dependent masking, which yields more reliable calibrations. Moreover, we propose a Data-aware Any-order Quantizer (DAQ) that learns ultra-low-bit weight representations via an optimization algorithm. It performs iterative approximation guided by our simulated calibration data. In addition, under a strict 2-bit budget, we introduce Adaptive Blockwise Mixed Precision (ABMP), a sensitivity-based precision allocation scheme that adaptively assigns bit width across channel groups. When restricted to 2-bit precision, Quant-dLLM consistently achieves higher accuracy than state-of-the-art (SOTA) AR-transfer PTQ methods on dLLMs. The code and models will be available at: https://github.com/ZTA2785/Quant-dLLM.
title Quant-dLLM: Post-Training Extreme Low-Bit Quantization for Diffusion Large Language Models
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.03274