40 layers › Window layer › Sliding-window attention › Window attention
Window positions
×tensortopk_idxs
Up to 128 positions per query.
- shape
- [B batch, T positions, 128 window]
Sources
Contextual evidence from Window positions
The positions a query may attend to inside the sliding window: in a prefill the last 128 up to itself, in a decode step the whole ring.
window-indices · deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash / inference/model.py
Pinned revision 2cba9e42aa02 ↗ · lines 410–426
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def get_window_topk_idxs(window_size: int, bsz: int, seqlen: int, start_pos: int):
"""Which sliding-window cache slots each query attends to; -1 marks a slot holding nothing.
The cache is a ring of `window_size` slots. Prefill needs one row per query, each seeing its own
causal window. A decode step has a single query that sees the whole ring, listed oldest first.
Order within a row does not matter to `sparse_attn`, which handles every slot independently.
"""
if start_pos == 0:
end = torch.arange(seqlen).unsqueeze(1)
idxs = (end - window_size + 1).clamp(0) + torch.arange(min(seqlen, window_size))
idxs = torch.where(idxs > end, -1, idxs) # before the sequence started
else:
oldest = start_pos % window_size + 1
idxs = torch.cat([torch.arange(oldest, window_size), torch.arange(oldest)])
idxs = torch.where(idxs > start_pos, -1, idxs) # ring still filling
# sparse_attn needs real [b, m, topk] int32 memory, hence the materializing expand
return idxs.int().unsqueeze(0).expand(bsz, -1, -1).contiguous()Contextual evidence from Gather rows
Sparse attention: each query head scores the gathered key–value rows, the softmax has one more term in its denominator from the head’s learned sink, and the output is the weighted sum of the same rows.
sparse-attn · deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash / inference/kernel.py
Pinned revision 2cba9e42aa02 ↗ · lines 310–403
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@tilelang.jit(pass_configs=pass_configs)
def sparse_attn_kernel(h: int, d: int, scale=None):
"""Sparse multi-head attention via index gathering + online softmax (FlashAttention-style).
For each (batch, seq_pos), gathers top-k KV positions by index, computes attention
with numerically stable running max/sum, and includes a learnable attn_sink bias."""
b = T.symbolic("b")
m = T.symbolic("m")
n = T.symbolic("n")
topk = T.symbolic("topk")
if scale is None:
scale = (1.0 / d) ** 0.5
num_stages = 2
threads = 256
block = 64
num_blocks = tilelang.cdiv(topk, block)
@T.prim_func
def sparse_attn_kernel_(
q: T.Tensor[(b, m, h, d), BF16],
kv: T.Tensor[(b, n, d), BF16],
o: T.Tensor[(b, m, h, d), BF16],
attn_sink: T.Tensor[(h,), FP32],
topk_idxs: T.Tensor[(b, m, topk), INT32],
):
with T.Kernel(m, b, threads=threads) as (bx, by):
q_shared = T.alloc_shared((h, d), BF16)
kv_shared = T.alloc_shared((block, d), BF16)
o_shared = T.alloc_shared((h, d), BF16)
acc_s_cast = T.alloc_shared((h, block), BF16)
idxs = T.alloc_fragment(block, INT32)
acc_s = T.alloc_fragment((h, block), FP32)
acc_o = T.alloc_fragment((h, d), FP32)
scores_max = T.alloc_fragment(h, FP32)
scores_max_prev = T.alloc_fragment(h, FP32)
scores_scale = T.alloc_fragment(h, FP32)
scores_sum = T.alloc_fragment(h, FP32)
sum_exp = T.alloc_fragment(h, FP32)
T.clear(acc_o)
T.clear(sum_exp)
# Finite lower bound instead of -inf: a row with no valid index (all -1) would otherwise
# produce exp(-inf - (-inf)) = NaN. With a finite bound such rows yield an all-zero output,
# matching the training kernel's convention.
T.fill(scores_max, -1e30)
T.copy(q[by, bx, :, :], q_shared)
for t in T.Pipelined(num_blocks, num_stages=num_stages):
for i in T.Parallel(block):
idxs[i] = T.if_then_else(t * block + i < topk, topk_idxs[by, bx, t * block + i], -1)
for i, j in T.Parallel(block, d):
kv_shared[i, j] = T.if_then_else(idxs[i] != -1, kv[by, idxs[i], j], 0)
for i, j in T.Parallel(h, block):
acc_s[i, j] = T.if_then_else(idxs[j] != -1, 0, -T.infinity(FP32))
T.gemm(q_shared, kv_shared, acc_s, transpose_B=True, policy=T.GemmWarpPolicy.FullRow)
for i, j in T.Parallel(h, block):
acc_s[i, j] *= scale
T.copy(scores_max, scores_max_prev)
T.reduce_max(acc_s, scores_max, dim=1, clear=False)
for i in T.Parallel(h):
scores_scale[i] = T.exp(scores_max_prev[i] - scores_max[i])
for i, j in T.Parallel(h, block):
acc_s[i, j] = T.exp(acc_s[i, j] - scores_max[i])
T.reduce_sum(acc_s, scores_sum, dim=1)
for i in T.Parallel(h):
sum_exp[i] = sum_exp[i] * scores_scale[i] + scores_sum[i]
T.copy(acc_s, acc_s_cast)
for i, j in T.Parallel(h, d):
acc_o[i, j] *= scores_scale[i]
T.gemm(acc_s_cast, kv_shared, acc_o, policy=T.GemmWarpPolicy.FullRow)
for i in T.Parallel(h):
sum_exp[i] += T.exp(attn_sink[i] - scores_max[i])
for i, j in T.Parallel(h, d):
acc_o[i, j] /= sum_exp[i]
T.copy(acc_o, o_shared)
T.copy(o_shared, o[by, bx, :, :])
return sparse_attn_kernel_
def sparse_attn(q: torch.Tensor, kv: torch.Tensor, attn_sink: torch.Tensor, topk_idxs: torch.Tensor, softmax_scale: float) -> torch.Tensor:
b, s, h, d = q.size()
# Pad heads to 16 for kernel efficiency (stripped after)
if h < 16:
q = torch.cat([q, q.new_zeros(b, s, 16 - h, d)], dim=2)
attn_sink = torch.cat([attn_sink, attn_sink.new_zeros(16 - h)])
o = torch.empty_like(q)
kernel = sparse_attn_kernel(q.size(2), d, softmax_scale)
kernel(q, kv, o, attn_sink, topk_idxs)
if h < 16:
o = o.narrow(2, 0, h).contiguous()
return o