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mlx_native/
device.rs

1//! [`MlxDevice`] — Metal device and command queue wrapper.
2//!
3//! This is the entry-point for all GPU work.  Create one with
4//! [`MlxDevice::new()`] and use it to allocate buffers and create
5//! command encoders.
6
7use metal::{CommandQueue, Device, MTLResourceOptions};
8
9use crate::buffer::MlxBuffer;
10use crate::dtypes::DType;
11use crate::encoder::CommandEncoder;
12use crate::encoder_session::EncoderSession;
13use crate::error::{MlxError, Result};
14use crate::residency::{macos_15_or_newer, residency_disabled_by_env, ResidencySet};
15
16/// Wraps a Metal device and its command queue.
17///
18/// # Thread Safety
19///
20/// `MlxDevice` is `Send + Sync` — you can share it across threads. The
21/// underlying Metal device and command queue are thread-safe on Apple Silicon.
22///
23/// `Clone` is a cheap Arc-bump on the underlying handles: `metal::Device`
24/// + `metal::CommandQueue` wrap NSObject Arc-pointers internally, and
25/// [`ResidencySet`] is `#[derive(Clone)]` over an `Arc<ResidencySetInner>`.
26/// Cloning yields a SECOND handle pointing at the SAME GPU device, command
27/// queue, and residency-set NSObject — multiple owners (e.g. an
28/// `AdamOptimizer` + a per-step `GpuTape`) can register allocations
29/// against the same residency set without double-create.  ADR-020
30/// iter-13b dependency.
31#[derive(Clone)]
32pub struct MlxDevice {
33    device: Device,
34    queue: CommandQueue,
35    residency_set: Option<ResidencySet>,
36}
37
38// metal::Device and metal::CommandQueue are both Send + Sync.
39crate::static_assertions_send_sync!(MlxDevice);
40
41impl MlxDevice {
42    /// Initialize the Metal GPU device and create a command queue.
43    ///
44    /// Returns `Err(MlxError::DeviceNotFound)` if no Metal device is available
45    /// (e.g. running on a non-Apple-Silicon machine or in a headless Linux VM).
46    pub fn new() -> Result<Self> {
47        let device = Device::system_default().ok_or(MlxError::DeviceNotFound)?;
48        let queue = device.new_command_queue();
49        let log_init = std::env::var("MLX_NATIVE_LOG_INIT").as_deref() == Ok("1");
50
51        let residency_set = if residency_disabled_by_env() {
52            if log_init {
53                eprintln!("[mlx-native] residency sets = false (reason: HF2Q_NO_RESIDENCY=1)");
54            }
55            None
56        } else if !macos_15_or_newer() {
57            if log_init {
58                eprintln!("[mlx-native] residency sets = false (reason: macOS < 15.0)");
59            }
60            None
61        } else {
62            let set = ResidencySet::new(&device)?;
63            if set.is_noop() {
64                if log_init {
65                    eprintln!("[mlx-native] residency sets = false (reason: macOS < 15.0)");
66                }
67                None
68            } else {
69                set.register_with_queue(&queue);
70                if log_init {
71                    eprintln!("[mlx-native] residency sets = true");
72                }
73                Some(set)
74            }
75        };
76
77        Ok(Self {
78            device,
79            queue,
80            residency_set,
81        })
82    }
83
84    /// Create a [`CommandEncoder`] for batching GPU dispatches.
85    ///
86    /// The encoder wraps a fresh Metal command buffer from the device's command
87    /// queue.  Encode one or more kernel dispatches, then call
88    /// [`CommandEncoder::commit_and_wait`] to submit and block until completion.
89    ///
90    /// ADR-015 iter8e (Phase 3b): the encoder is bound to the device's
91    /// residency set so every `commit*` boundary flushes deferred
92    /// add/remove staging (one `[set commit]` per CB submission instead
93    /// of per-allocation). When residency sets are disabled
94    /// (HF2Q_NO_RESIDENCY=1, macOS<15) the binding is `None` and the
95    /// flush is a no-op.
96    pub fn command_encoder(&self) -> Result<CommandEncoder> {
97        CommandEncoder::new_with_residency(&self.queue, self.residency_set.clone())
98    }
99
100    /// Create an [`EncoderSession`] (ADR-019 Phase 0b iter89e2-A — bare
101    /// struct) for one transformer stage's worth of GPU work.
102    ///
103    /// Gated on `HF2Q_ENCODER_SESSION=1` (default OFF). When the gate is
104    /// unset, returns `Ok(None)` so callers can fall back to
105    /// [`Self::command_encoder`] without an extra conditional. When set,
106    /// returns `Ok(Some(EncoderSession))` carrying a fresh
107    /// [`CommandEncoder`] — same construction path as `command_encoder()`,
108    /// just wrapped in the session shell.
109    ///
110    /// In iter89e2-A no production code path consumes this method; it
111    /// exists so the env-gate has a callable factory and the lifecycle
112    /// tests have a public entry point. Phase 1+ migrations
113    /// (`forward_gpu.rs`, `gpu_full_attn.rs`, `gpu_delta_net.rs`) opt in
114    /// per-call site.
115    ///
116    /// # Errors
117    ///
118    /// Surfaces any error from the underlying `EncoderSession::new`
119    /// — currently infallible past metal-rs's `new_command_buffer`,
120    /// preserved for future-proofing.
121    pub fn encoder_session(&self) -> Result<Option<EncoderSession>> {
122        if !EncoderSession::env_enabled() {
123            return Ok(None);
124        }
125        EncoderSession::new(&self.device, &self.queue, self.residency_set.clone()).map(Some)
126    }
127
128    /// Allocate a new GPU buffer with `StorageModeShared`.
129    ///
130    /// # Arguments
131    ///
132    /// * `byte_len` — Size of the buffer in bytes.  Must be > 0.
133    /// * `dtype`    — Element data type for metadata tracking.
134    /// * `shape`    — Tensor dimensions for metadata tracking.
135    ///
136    /// # Errors
137    ///
138    /// Returns `MlxError::InvalidArgument` if `byte_len` is zero.
139    /// Returns `MlxError::BufferAllocationError` if Metal cannot allocate.
140    pub fn alloc_buffer(
141        &self,
142        byte_len: usize,
143        dtype: DType,
144        shape: Vec<usize>,
145    ) -> Result<MlxBuffer> {
146        if byte_len == 0 {
147            return Err(MlxError::InvalidArgument(
148                "Buffer byte length must be > 0".into(),
149            ));
150        }
151        let metal_buf = self
152            .device
153            .new_buffer(byte_len as u64, MTLResourceOptions::StorageModeShared);
154        // Metal returns a non-null buffer on success; a null pointer indicates
155        // failure (typically out-of-memory).
156        if metal_buf.contents().is_null() {
157            return Err(MlxError::BufferAllocationError { bytes: byte_len });
158        }
159        // ADR-015 iter61a (broken-window B-W-1 fix): explicitly zero every
160        // newly-allocated GPU buffer. `MTLResourceOptions::StorageModeShared`
161        // does NOT guarantee zeroed pages on Apple Silicon — Metal's allocator
162        // recycles pages from recently-freed allocations within the device's
163        // private heap before the OS sees the free, so a fresh buffer can
164        // contain residual bytes from prior allocations in the same process.
165        // In a cold process this surfaces as run-to-run non-determinism: the
166        // heap state at the moment Metal services `newBufferWithLength`
167        // differs across cold invocations, and any kernel that reads a buffer
168        // before fully populating it (e.g. DeltaNet's `ssm_conv` reads
169        // conv_state, MoE expert routing reads scratch, attn-output buffers
170        // before the final write barrier) propagates that garbage into
171        // logits → argmax → divergent generations across cold runs.
172        // The cost is one memset per allocation; on workloads dominated by
173        // weight-load (one-time) and kvcache (one-time), this is negligible.
174        // Safety: `metal_buf.contents()` is non-null (verified above), points
175        // to exactly `byte_len` bytes of `StorageModeShared` memory we just
176        // allocated and have exclusive access to (no other thread or GPU
177        // dispatch references it yet — we haven't returned the MlxBuffer
178        // wrapper yet, and the underlying CB queue is not in flight on this
179        // allocation). Writing zero bytes is well-defined for any DType.
180        unsafe {
181            std::ptr::write_bytes(metal_buf.contents() as *mut u8, 0, byte_len);
182        }
183        // ADR-015 iter8e (Phase 3b): auto-register the new allocation with the
184        // device's residency set so it gets the MTLResidencySet hint on the
185        // next dispatch. The `with_residency` path stages the addAllocation
186        // but DEFERS the `[set commit]` to the next CommandEncoder::commit*
187        // boundary via flush_pending — mirrors llama.cpp's batch-add /
188        // single-commit pattern in ggml-metal-device.m:1378-1382.
189        //
190        // No-op when residency_set is None (HF2Q_NO_RESIDENCY=1, macOS<15,
191        // or no Metal device).
192        match self.residency_set.as_ref() {
193            Some(set) => Ok(MlxBuffer::with_residency(
194                metal_buf,
195                dtype,
196                shape,
197                set.clone(),
198            )),
199            None => Ok(MlxBuffer::from_raw(metal_buf, dtype, shape)),
200        }
201    }
202
203    /// Borrow the underlying `metal::Device` for direct Metal API calls
204    /// (e.g. kernel compilation in [`KernelRegistry`](crate::KernelRegistry)).
205    #[inline]
206    pub fn metal_device(&self) -> &metal::DeviceRef {
207        &self.device
208    }
209
210    /// Borrow the underlying `metal::CommandQueue`.
211    #[inline]
212    pub fn metal_queue(&self) -> &CommandQueue {
213        &self.queue
214    }
215
216    /// Borrow the device-level residency set, if residency support is enabled.
217    #[inline]
218    pub(crate) fn residency_set(&self) -> Option<&ResidencySet> {
219        self.residency_set.as_ref()
220    }
221
222    /// Return whether this device has an active Metal residency set.
223    #[inline]
224    pub fn residency_sets_enabled(&self) -> bool {
225        self.residency_set.is_some()
226    }
227
228    /// Human-readable name of the GPU (e.g. "Apple M2 Max").
229    pub fn name(&self) -> String {
230        self.device.name().to_string()
231    }
232}
233
234impl std::fmt::Debug for MlxDevice {
235    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
236        f.debug_struct("MlxDevice")
237            .field("name", &self.device.name())
238            .finish()
239    }
240}