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triton/python/tutorials/02-fused-softmax.py
2021-07-27 12:38:49 -07:00

215 lines
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Python

"""
Fused Softmax
=================
In this tutorial, you will write a fused softmax operation (that outperforms PyTorch) and learn about:
- The benefits of kernel fusion for bandwidth-bound operations.
- The syntax and usage of reduction operators in Triton.
- The automatic vectorization capabilities of the Triton compiler.
"""
# %%
# Motivations
# ------------
# Custom GPU kernels for elementwise additions are educationally valuable but won't get you very far in practice.
# Let us consider instead the case of a simple (numerically stabilized) softmax operation:
import torch
# Compute the row-wise softmax of x
def naive_softmax(x):
# read MN elements ; write M elements
x_max = torch.max(x, axis=1)[0]
# read 2MN elements ; write MN elements
z = x - x_max[:, None]
# read MN elements ; write MN elements
numerator = torch.exp(x)
# read MN elements ; write M elements
denominator = torch.sum(numerator, axis=1)
# read 2MN elements ; write MN elements
ret = numerator / denominator[:, None]
# in total: read 7MN elements ; wrote 3MN + 2M elements
return ret
# %%
# When implemented naively in pytorch, computing :code:`y = naive_softmax(x)` for :math:`x \in R^{M \times N}` requires reading :math:`7MN` elements from DRAM and writing back :math:`3MN + 2M` elements.
# This is obviously wasteful; we'd prefer to have a custom "fused" kernel that only reads X once and does all the necessary computations on-chip.
# In this case, we would be reading and writing back only :math:`MN` bytes, so we could expect a theoretical speed-up of ~5x (i.e., :math:`(10MN + 2M) / 2MN`).
# In practice, though, we would be getting a bit less as our kernel computes exponentials and internally moves data around in shared memory.
# %%
# Compute Kernel
# ----------------
# Our softmax kernel works as follows: each program loads a row of the input X, normalizes it and writes back the result to the output Y.
# Note that one important limitation of Triton is that each block must have a power-of-two number of elements,
# so we need to internally "pad" tiles and guard the memory operations properly if we want to handle any possible input shapes:
#
# .. code-block:: C
#
# __global__ void softmax(float* Y, float* X, int stride_xm, int stride_ym, int M, int N){
# // row index
# int m = get_program_id(0);
# // column indices
# int n [BLOCK] = 0 ... BLOCK;
# // the memory address of all the elements
# // that we want to load can be computed as follows
# float* px [BLOCK] = X + m*stride_xm + n;
# // because BLOCK has to be a power of two
# // (per Triton-C specs), it is important
# // to guard each memory operation with predicates
# // or we will read out of bounds
# bool check[BLOCK] = n < N;
# float x [BLOCK] = check ? *px : -F32_INFINITY;
# // syntax for reduction in Triton is:
# // x[:, :, OPERATOR, :, :]
# // ^
# // index
# // where operator is in {min, max, +}
# // for 1D vectors, this is just x[OPERATOR].
# float z [BLOCK] = x - x[max];
# // Note that exponentials in Triton are fast
# // but approximate (i.e., think __expf in CUDA)
# float num [BLOCK] = exp(z);
# float denom = num[+];
# // The result of the reduction is now stored in y
# float y [BLOCK] = num / denom;
# // We write it back
# float* py [BLOCK] = Y + m*stride_ym + n;
# *?(check)py = y;
# }
# %%
# Torch Bindings
# ---------------
# Here our torch bindings is quite similar to that of the vector addition mentioned in the previous tutorial.
# We just need to make sure that BLOCK is the smallest power of two greater than the number of columns N of the input matrix.
# This means that different values of BLOCK will result in different kernels
import torch
import triton
# Source code for the Triton kernel
_src = """
__global__ void softmax(float* Y, float* X, int stride_ym, int stride_xm, int M, int N){
int m = get_program_id(0);
int n [BLOCK] = 0 ... BLOCK;
float* px [BLOCK] = X + m*stride_xm + n;
bool check[BLOCK] = n < N;
float x [BLOCK] = check ? *px : -F32_INFINITY;
float z [BLOCK] = x - x[max];
float num [BLOCK] = exp(z);
float denom = num[+];
float y [BLOCK] = num / denom;
float* py [BLOCK] = Y + m*stride_ym + n;
*?(check)py = y;
}
"""
# helper function to get the smaller power-of-two larger than a given number
def next_power_of_2(n):
n -= 1
n |= n >> 1
n |= n >> 2
n |= n >> 4
n |= n >> 8
n |= n >> 16
n += 1
return n
# kernel caching mechanism
def make_kernel(N, device):
cache = make_kernel.cache
# Now are kernels are indexed not only by the provided device but also
# by the rounded number of columns in the input matrix
BLOCK = next_power_of_2(N)
key = (BLOCK, device)
if key not in cache:
defines = {'BLOCK': BLOCK}
cache[key] = triton.kernel(_src, device=device, defines=defines)
return cache[key]
make_kernel.cache = dict()
class _softmax(torch.autograd.Function):
@staticmethod
def forward(ctx, x):
# constraints of the op
assert x.dtype == torch.float32
y = torch.empty_like(x)
# The launch grid is simple: we have one kernel instance per row of the input matrix
M, N = y.shape
grid = lambda opt: (M, )
# Launch kernel
kernel = make_kernel(N, y.device)
kernel(y.data_ptr(), x.data_ptr(), y.stride(0), x.stride(0), M, N, grid=grid)
return y
softmax = _softmax.apply
# %%
# We can use the above softmax function to compute the row-wise softmax of a given matrix.
# %%
# Unit Test
# ----------
# %%
# We make sure that we test our kernel on a matrix with an irregular number of rows and columns.
# This will allow us to verify that our padding mechanism works.
torch.manual_seed(0)
x = torch.randn(1823, 781, device='cuda')
y_tri = softmax(x)
y_ref = torch.softmax(x, axis=1)
print(torch.allclose(y_tri, y_ref))
#%%
# As expected, the results are identical.
# %%
# Benchmarking
# -------------
# Here we will benchmark our operation as a function of the number of columns in the input matrix -- assuming 4096 rows.
# We will then compare its performance against (1) :code:`torch.softmax` and (2) the :code:`naive_softmax` defined above.
@triton.testing.perf_report(
triton.testing.Benchmark(
x_names=['N'], # argument names to use as an x-axis for the plot
x_vals=[256 * i for i in range(2, 50)], # different possible values for `x_name`
y_name='provider', # argument name whose value corresponds to a different line in the plot
y_vals=['torch', 'triton', 'naive'], # possible keys for `y_name`
y_lines=["Torch", "Triton", 'Naive'], # label name for the lines
ylabel="GB/s", # label name for the y-axis
plot_name="softmax-performance", # name for the plot. Used also as a file name for saving the plot.
args={'M': 4096} # values for function arguments not in `x_names` and `y_name`
)
)
def benchmark(M, N, provider):
x = torch.randn(M, N, device='cuda', dtype=torch.float32)
if provider == 'torch':
ms, min_ms, max_ms = triton.testing.do_bench(lambda: torch.softmax(x, axis=-1))
if provider == 'triton':
ms, min_ms, max_ms = triton.testing.do_bench(lambda: softmax(x))
if provider == 'naive':
ms, min_ms, max_ms = triton.testing.do_bench(lambda: naive_softmax(x))
gbps = lambda ms: 2 * x.nelement() * x.element_size() * 1e-9 / (ms * 1e-3)
return gbps(ms), gbps(max_ms), gbps(min_ms)
benchmark.run(show_plots=True)
# %%
# In the above plot, we can see that:
#
# - Triton is 4-5x faster than the naive implementation, which is consistent with our theoretical predictions.
# - Triton is significantly faster than :code:`torch.softmax` for very large input matrices. My guess from looking at the source-code of the `PyTorch kernel <https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/blob/9409a3a39b7149bb2d833a89e0c944109bef7c27/caffe2/operators/softmax_ops.cu#L240>`_ is that PyTorch only partially fuses the computation of the softmax.
# This means that -- when temporary data is too large to fit entirely in the GPU's cache -- it transfers almost twice the amount of data necessary.
# Note that our Triton kernel is not only faster than PyTorch's CUDA kernel, it is also **easier to read, understand and maintain**.