40 layers › 2 groups of 6 layers › Source layer, pairs pooled › Compressed sparse attention
Query latent
×tensorqr
The normalized 1,280-feature latent; the indexer’s queries are made from it too.
- shape
- [B batch, T positions, 1280 query latent]
Sources
Contextual evidence from Query compression
Attention owns a low-rank query, one key–value projection, a learned sink per head, a grouped low-rank output, a ring buffer for the window, and, by the two source lists, a compressor and an indexer; layers that attend to compressed positions use the larger rotary base with YaRN.
attention-init · deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash / inference/model.py
Pinned revision 2cba9e42aa02 ↗ · lines 613–698
Read code excerpt
class Attention(nn.Module):
"""Latent attention over two KV sources at once, concatenated into one `sparse_attn` call: a
sliding window of raw KV, plus -- when compress_ratio > 0 -- `index_topk` compressed positions
reaching further back. Q and the output projection are both low-rank, the latter grouped.
compress_ratio > 0 does not mean the layer compresses its own KV: only kv_source_layers do,
the rest read that same cache.
"""
def __init__(self, layer_id: int, args: ModelArgs):
super().__init__()
self.layer_id = layer_id
self.dim = args.dim
self.n_heads = args.n_heads
self.n_local_heads = args.n_heads // world_size
self.q_lora_rank = args.q_lora_rank
self.o_lora_rank = args.o_lora_rank
self.head_dim = args.head_dim
self.rope_head_dim = args.rope_head_dim
self.nope_head_dim = args.head_dim - args.rope_head_dim
self.n_groups = args.o_groups
self.n_local_groups = self.n_groups // world_size
self.window_size = args.window_size
self.compress_ratio = args.compress_ratios[layer_id]
self.eps = args.norm_eps
self.attn_sink = nn.Parameter(torch.empty(self.n_local_heads, dtype=torch.float32))
self.wq_a = Linear(self.dim, self.q_lora_rank)
self.q_norm = RMSNorm(self.q_lora_rank, self.eps)
self.wq_b = ColumnParallelLinear(self.q_lora_rank, self.n_heads * self.head_dim)
self.wkv = Linear(self.dim, self.head_dim)
self.kv_norm = RMSNorm(self.head_dim, self.eps)
self.wo_a = ColumnParallelLinear(
self.n_heads * self.head_dim // self.n_groups,
self.n_groups * args.o_lora_rank,
dtype=torch.bfloat16,
)
self.wo_b = RowParallelLinear(self.n_groups * args.o_lora_rank, self.dim)
self.softmax_scale = self.head_dim**-0.5
is_backbone = layer_id < args.n_layers
self.is_kv_source = is_backbone and layer_id in args.kv_source_layers
self.is_index_source = is_backbone and layer_id in args.index_source_layers
self.compressor: Compressor | None = None
self.indexer: Indexer | None = None
if self.is_kv_source:
self.compressor = Compressor(args, layer_id)
if self.is_index_source:
self.indexer = Indexer(args, layer_id)
self.window_kv_cache: torch.Tensor
self.register_buffer(
"window_kv_cache",
torch.zeros(args.max_batch_size, args.window_size, self.head_dim),
persistent=False,
)
if self.is_kv_source:
self.compress_kv_cache: torch.Tensor
self.register_buffer(
"compress_kv_cache",
torch.zeros(
args.max_batch_size,
args.max_seq_len // self.compress_ratio,
self.head_dim,
),
persistent=False,
)
if self.compress_ratio:
original_seq_len, rope_theta = (
args.original_seq_len,
args.compress_rope_theta,
)
else:
# disable YaRN and use base rope_theta in pure sliding-window attention
original_seq_len, rope_theta = 0, args.rope_theta
freqs_cis = precompute_freqs_cis(
self.rope_head_dim,
args.max_seq_len,
original_seq_len,
rope_theta,
args.rope_factor,
args.beta_fast,
args.beta_slow,
)
self.freqs_cis: torch.Tensor
self.register_buffer("freqs_cis", freqs_cis, persistent=False)Contextual evidence from Query compression
Queries through the latent with their rotary part rotated; window and compressed keys and values joined; sparse attention over the listed positions; the output rotated back, projected per group of heads and then to the model width.
attention-forward · deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash / inference/model.py
Pinned revision 2cba9e42aa02 ↗ · lines 765–789
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def forward(self, x: torch.Tensor, start_pos: int):
bsz, seqlen, _ = x.size()
freqs_cis = self.freqs_cis[start_pos : start_pos + seqlen]
rd = self.rope_head_dim
qr = self.q_norm(self.wq_a(x))
q = self.wq_b(qr).unflatten(-1, (self.n_local_heads, self.head_dim))
apply_rotary_emb(q[..., -rd:], freqs_cis)
kv, topk_idxs = self._window_kv(x, freqs_cis, start_pos)
if self.compress_ratio:
compress_kv, compress_idxs = self._compress_kv(x, qr, start_pos, kv.size(1))
kv = torch.cat([kv, compress_kv], dim=1)
topk_idxs = torch.cat([topk_idxs, compress_idxs], dim=-1)
o = sparse_attn(q, kv, self.attn_sink, topk_idxs, self.softmax_scale)
apply_rotary_emb(o[..., -rd:], freqs_cis, True)
# wo_a is block-diagonal over groups (each projects only its own heads), hence einsum not
# Linear. convert.py dequantizes it to bf16; an fp8 grouped GEMM would halve the memory.
o = o.view(bsz, seqlen, self.n_local_groups, -1)
wo_a = self.wo_a.weight.view(self.n_local_groups, self.o_lora_rank, -1)
o = torch.einsum("bsgd,grd->bsgr", o, wo_a)
x = self.wo_b(o.flatten(2))
return xContextual evidence from Query compression
RMSNorm divides by the root mean square over the features, computed in float32, and multiplies by a learned gain.
rmsnorm · deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash / inference/model.py
Pinned revision 2cba9e42aa02 ↗ · lines 281–293
Read code excerpt
class RMSNorm(nn.Module):
def __init__(self, dim: int, eps: float = 1e-6):
super().__init__()
self.dim = dim
self.eps = eps
self.weight = nn.Parameter(torch.ones(dim))
def forward(self, x: torch.Tensor):
dtype = x.dtype
x = x.float()
var = x.square().mean(-1, keepdim=True)
x = x * torch.rsqrt(var + self.eps)
return (self.weight * x).to(dtype)Contextual evidence from Query heads
Rotary frequencies with the YaRN scaling above the original context, and the rotation of adjacent feature pairs, with an inverse.
rope · deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash / inference/model.py
Pinned revision 2cba9e42aa02 ↗ · lines 369–406
Read code excerpt
def precompute_freqs_cis(dim, seqlen, original_seq_len, base, factor, beta_fast, beta_slow) -> torch.Tensor:
"""Rotary frequencies as complex exponentials, one row per position.
With original_seq_len > 0 this applies YaRN: dimensions whose wavelength already fits inside the
training context keep their frequency, those far beyond it are divided by `factor`, and the
`beta_fast`..`beta_slow` band in between is faded across with a linear ramp.
"""
freqs = 1.0 / (base ** (torch.arange(0, dim, 2, dtype=torch.float32) / dim))
if original_seq_len > 0:
# the dim whose wavelength completes `rotations` turns over the training context
def corrected_dim(rotations):
return dim * math.log(original_seq_len / (rotations * 2 * math.pi)) / (2 * math.log(base))
low = max(math.floor(corrected_dim(beta_fast)), 0)
high = min(math.ceil(corrected_dim(beta_slow)), dim - 1)
ramp = ((torch.arange(dim // 2, dtype=torch.float32) - low) / max(high - low, 1e-3)).clamp(0, 1)
smooth = 1 - ramp
freqs = freqs / factor * (1 - smooth) + freqs * smooth
freqs = torch.outer(torch.arange(seqlen), freqs)
return torch.polar(torch.ones_like(freqs), freqs)
def apply_rotary_emb(x: torch.Tensor, freqs_cis: torch.Tensor, inverse: bool = False) -> torch.Tensor:
"""Rotate `x` in place, taking adjacent element pairs as complex numbers. Accepts [b, s, d] and
[b, s, h, d]; `inverse` conjugates the rotation, which is how the attention output gets the
query's rotation removed again so the cache can stay in one shared rotated form."""
y = x
x = torch.view_as_complex(x.float().unflatten(-1, (-1, 2)))
if inverse:
freqs_cis = freqs_cis.conj()
if x.ndim == 3:
freqs_cis = freqs_cis.view(1, x.size(1), x.size(-1))
else:
freqs_cis = freqs_cis.view(1, x.size(1), 1, x.size(-1))
x = torch.view_as_real(x * freqs_cis).flatten(-2)
y.copy_(x)
return yContextual evidence from Indexer
The indexer scores every compressed position for every query with few small heads against one shared key, masks what the query may not see, and keeps the best 512; the candidate source also publishes its candidate blocks, and later indexers score inside them.
indexer · deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash / inference/model.py
Pinned revision 2cba9e42aa02 ↗ · lines 488–580
Read code excerpt
class Indexer(torch.nn.Module):
"""Keeps the `index_topk` best compressed positions per query.
A small side attention: fp4 query heads against one shared key per compressed position, scores
rectified then combined by `weights_proj`. With a candidate source this is the second of two
levels; `select_candidate_blocks` is the first.
"""
def __init__(self, args: ModelArgs, layer_id: int):
super().__init__()
# the index keys are derived from the compressor's latent, so only a layer that compresses
# its own KV can produce them; every other indexer reads them from that layer's cache
self.owns_k = layer_id in args.kv_source_layers
self.compress_ratio = args.compress_ratios[layer_id]
self.is_candidate_source = layer_id == args.candidate_source_layer
self.uses_candidates = 0 <= args.candidate_source_layer < layer_id
self.candidate_topk_blocks = args.candidate_topk_blocks
self.candidate_block_size = args.candidate_block_size
self.dim = args.dim
self.n_heads = args.index_n_heads
self.n_local_heads = args.index_n_heads // world_size
self.index_head_dim = args.index_head_dim
self.rope_head_dim = args.rope_head_dim
self.index_topk = args.index_topk
self.q_lora_rank = args.q_lora_rank
self.softmax_scale = self.index_head_dim**-0.5
self.wq_b = ColumnParallelLinear(self.q_lora_rank, self.n_heads * self.index_head_dim)
self.weights_proj = ColumnParallelLinear(self.dim, self.n_heads, dtype=torch.bfloat16)
self.freqs_cis: torch.Tensor | None = None
if self.owns_k:
self.wk = Linear(args.head_dim, self.index_head_dim, dtype=torch.bfloat16)
self.k_norm = RMSNorm(self.index_head_dim, args.norm_eps)
self.k_cache: torch.Tensor
self.register_buffer(
"k_cache",
torch.zeros(args.max_batch_size, args.max_seq_len // self.compress_ratio, args.index_head_dim),
persistent=False,
)
def forward(self, x: torch.Tensor, qr: torch.Tensor, latent: torch.Tensor, start_pos: int, offset: int):
"""`latent` is this layer's RoPE-free compressed latent, None when this layer does not
compress or when its current group is still incomplete. An index-key owner turns it into
index keys here, which has to happen before Attention overwrites that same storage with
the RoPE'd, quantized values."""
assert self.freqs_cis is not None
bsz, seqlen, _ = x.size()
ratio, rd, end_pos = self.compress_ratio, self.rope_head_dim, start_pos + seqlen
# latent is None while a group is still filling up, so there is nothing to publish yet
if self.owns_k and latent is not None:
# a latent stands for the first token of its group, so group j takes position j * ratio
freqs = (
self.freqs_cis[: seqlen - seqlen % ratio : ratio]
if start_pos == 0
else self.freqs_cis[start_pos + 1 - ratio].unsqueeze(0)
)
k = self.k_norm(self.wk(latent))
apply_rotary_emb(k[..., -rd:], freqs)
fp4_act_quant(k, fp4_block_size, True)
self.k_cache[:bsz, start_pos // ratio : start_pos // ratio + k.size(1)] = k
shared_attn.index_k = self.k_cache
q = self.wq_b(qr).unflatten(-1, (self.n_local_heads, self.index_head_dim))
apply_rotary_emb(q[..., -rd:], self.freqs_cis[start_pos:end_pos])
fp4_act_quant(q, fp4_block_size, True)
index_k = shared_attn.index_k[:bsz, : end_pos // ratio]
weights = self.weights_proj(x) * (self.softmax_scale * self.n_heads**-0.5)
index_score = torch.einsum("bshd,btd->bsht", q, index_k)
index_score = (index_score.relu_() * weights.unsqueeze(-1)).sum(dim=2)
if world_size > 1:
dist.all_reduce(index_score)
# how many compressed positions each query can see: a block becomes visible once the query
# has passed its last token. One query per decode step, so there it is just a number.
if start_pos == 0:
compress_lens = (torch.arange(1, seqlen + 1, device=x.device) // ratio).unsqueeze(-1)
index_score.masked_fill_(torch.arange(seqlen // ratio, device=x.device) >= compress_lens, -torch.inf)
else:
compress_lens = end_pos // ratio
if self.is_candidate_source:
shared_attn.candidates = select_candidate_blocks(
index_score, compress_lens, self.candidate_topk_blocks, self.candidate_block_size
)
elif self.uses_candidates:
# level two: score with our own weights, but only inside the source's candidate blocks
index_score = index_score.masked_fill(~shared_attn.candidates, -torch.inf)
# top-k by score, re-sorted into position order; unreachable -> -1, rest shifted by offset
topk = min(self.index_topk, end_pos // ratio)
idxs = index_score.topk(topk, dim=-1, sorted=False).indices.sort(dim=-1).values
return torch.where(idxs < compress_lens, idxs + offset, -1).int()