Index Based Ops

Index-based ops (TopK, Sort, Argmax)

These ops return values + indices. emule does the math in f32, silicon in the SFPU; on value ties the index assignment can differ yet still be correct. Match the test's contract, not silicon's exact index choice.

What the test asserts (TopK; Sort/Argmax are analogous)

test_topk.py checks:

1. assert_numeric_metrics on values (PCC 0.9999, atol/rtol 1e-6).
2. assert_equal on values vs torch.topk(sorted=True) — exact. bf16 round-trips losslessly (CB bf16 → f32 DST → bf16), so the correct top-K values match torch exactly regardless of which tied index won. The only requirement: select the correct top-K set, sorted.
3. Gather cosine on indices: cosine(torch_vals, gather(input, ttnn_idx)) > 0.99. Indices are never compared to torch directly — only via gather, which is robust to ties ⇒ indices need only be valid (point at the right values).

So "correct but non-identical to silicon" is a non-issue: return the correct top-K values (sorted) + valid indices and it passes. A throwaway probe (call the op, then torch.equal on values + CosineSimilarity on gather(input, indices)) localizes failures fast.

Sort axis — the #1 gotcha

The ttnn topk kernels run transpose_wh_tile on every value/index tile before the LLK calls, moving the sort dim W onto the row index of the 32×32 DST tile (DST[r*32+c] = input[H=c][W=r]). Top-K along W at fixed H=c compares datums across rows at a fixed column → each column is an independent sort sequence. A per-row implementation returns garbage.

TopK kernel paths and the three LLK shims

Shims in compute_kernel_api.h (namespace __emule_topk): merge_split_col = full-sort 64 (V0∪V1), top-32→V0 / bottom-32→V1; sort_col = sort one tile's 32 per column.

• topk_local_sort(idir, i_end_phase): i_end_phase>=5 → merge_split_col; <5 → independent per-tile sort_col.
• topk_merge<top_min> and topk_rebuild: both "move the larger 32 into V0, lower 32 into V1" (topk_common_funcs.hpp:100,160) → both = merge_split_col. The full 64-sort is order-independent, so the kernel's reduction tree converges to the global top-K for all K (32/64/3000) without reproducing the SFPU's exact bitonic intermediate state.

Sort (ttnn.sort)

Reuses the TopK shims verbatim (topk_local_sort/topk_merge, not topk_rebuild) — merge_split_col is also correct for a full sort, so no new math is needed. It selects one of three program factories by width-in-tiles Wt against a grid-dependent threshold: single-core (Wt<=64) and cross-core exchange are supported; the single-row multi-core DRAM path (Wt above the threshold) is not (see below). The threshold scales with the core grid, so the same case can differ by arch — e.g. 262144 is cross-core on WH (64 cores) but single-row-multi-core on BH (110 cores, where it rounds just over the threshold).

The cross-core reader collapses an L1 pointer to a 32-bit address inside an #included header, which the JIT x86 patcher now reaches (companion tt-metal change). For the semaphore handshake itself see Cross-core handshakes below.

Unsupported — multi-core DRAM path (tracked in #214): its coordinator broadcasts a toggled VALID/0 release via noc_semaphore_set_multicast, which races under emule's synchronous (zero-latency) multicast — the consumer can lose a release (Semaphore::wait(0) stuck at 1, or a downstream cb_wait_front deadlock). This hits 524288 (both arches) and 262144 (BH only; WH 262144 is cross-core and passes). Pacing the multicast fixes sort but stalls sticky-signal multicasts (e.g. matmul DRAM-sharded), and the two are indistinguishable at the multicast layer; the cases are excluded from the regression entries.

Argmax (ttnn.argmax)

Dataflow-only — no compute/SFPU; the max-scan runs in the NCRISC reader. Indices are compared exactly to torch.argmax (first/lowest max wins), not gather-validated, so the kernel's strict-> / idx<max_idx tie-break must run faithfully (it does — emule just executes it). Three readers: single-core ROW_MAJOR, single-core TILE (walks faces, excludes the -42 implicit padding), multi-core ROW_MAJOR. No new shim needed — api/numeric/* and api/debug/waypoint.h resolve to real tt-metal headers (waypoint is a no-op without WATCHER_ENABLED). The multi-core path depends on the cross-core start-ordering below.

MoE (ttnn.moe)

TopK + -inf-masked softmax, reusing the four topk_* shims; value-based (PCC 0.999). Selects the 0th expert via eqz(index) then mul(weights, mask), routing a 0/1 mask through the UInt16 index CB — see Integer-mask round-trip. Symptom when wrong: ttnn output all-zero vs nonzero torch.

Integer-mask round-trip (an int CB used as a numeric 0/1 mask)

A UInt16 CB carries two kinds of datum: raw integer index payloads (must stay bit-exact, read via __emule_dst_load_i32) and numeric masks (a 1 must multiply as 1.0f). emule's DST is untyped float32, so a per-slot tag __emule_dst_holds_int[] (common_globals.h) disambiguates: copy_tile sets it from the source CB (cb_is_int_format), eqz_tile consults it to emit an integer 1/0 (survives the bit-exact pack) vs a float, and the FPU binary ops convert an integer operand to its numeric value (__emule_unpack_cb_tile_numeric). Pack is unchanged, so TopK/Sort/Argmax can't regress. Mirrors silicon, where the SFPU's integer mode leaves an integer (not IEEE-float) result.

Sampling (ttnn.sampling)

top-k/top-p filter + inverse-CDF draw over the SFPU RNG. Index-validity contract (determinism / randomness / validity / k=1) — match the contract, not the RNG bit sequence. rand.h uses a per-core thread-local mt19937 seeded from (op seed, core coords): seeded → reproducible, seed == 0 → reseeded from entropy each draw (every emule core is a host thread, so a process-global std::rand both races and can't reproduce per core). The writer pulls the SDPA dataflow chain via a cpp/ttnn/... include, resolved by the -I <src>/ttnn JIT flag.

Cross-core handshakes under emule

A reducer-style op (workers signal a collator core, which waits) leans on two silicon timings emule collapses. When one hangs, suspect these before declaring a path unsupportable:

1. Zero-latency atomics. noc_semaphore_inc lands instantly, so a polling waiter can skip past a value the NOC's latency would have let it observe. Use noc_semaphore_wait's >= val for monotonic counters (exact ==0 only for a VALID→0 toggle). The class Semaphore<>::wait is exact-match — fine for a counter that settles at its terminal value, but not robust to overshoot.
2. Instant reads + sequential thread spawn. A worker can run to its increment before a peer has executed its prologue. If that peer is an ungated reducer resetting its counter (no start-sem gate that iteration), the reset clobbers the early increment and the exact-match wait hangs — worse with more cores. The startup barrier (docs/noc-emulation.md §1.1) models simultaneous dispatch but does not order a reducer's prologue against worker increments — that ordering is the kernel's job. The fix is in the kernel, not emule: make the reset timing-independent. A reset that only re-asserts the dispatcher's zero-init is redundant — drop it (argmax's k=0 case); a reset that clears a prior iteration's count must sit behind the same start-sem handshake that gates the increments (argmax's k>0 case). Do not reintroduce a NOC-latency sleep to paper over this — emule surfacing the race is correct.

Symptom to recognize: Semaphore::wait(N) stuck at M<N, nondeterministic, scaling with core count. Genuinely unsupportable is different — see the sort multi-core DRAM multicast race above (a toggled release the synchronous multicast loses).

Infra gaps these ops surfaced (general, not topk-specific)

1. __emule_pack_offset resets on cb_push_back, not cb_reserve_back (cb_api.h, matching silicon pack.h). The multi-core final kernel fills a staging CB with reserve_back(1) per tile + one trailing push_back(Wt), relying on auto-advancing pack_tile(0,cb) to hit distinct slots.
2. uint16 unpack clamp (common.h::__emule_unpack_cb_tile_to): clamp n to the tile bound (an oversized index page on the dim=1 path indexed rowmajor_to_nfaces[]/DST out of bounds).
3. Program-global CB addressing (emulated_program_runner.cpp): cross-core get_write_ptr(cb) for a remote-core CB — see references/emule-mapping.md §4.
4. dataflow_api.h includes hostdevcommon/common_values.hpp (INVALID/VALID).
5. Self-recycled CB reserve (cb_api.h): non-blocking cb_reserve_back for a CB the same compute thread also consumes — the in-place bitonic recycle deadlocks otherwise (emule runs compute single-threaded).

Debug method that worked

Instrument the dataflow/compute boundary with fprintf in the JIT kernels/shims (they run as host threads): dump per-tile values at the final-core input copy and after the merge reduction to separate "data present but not surfaced" (merge/pack bug) from "data missing" (inter-core transfer bug).