Kimi K3 · MoE RMSNorm · OpenModelAtlas

93 layers › 24 MLA layers

MoE RMSNorm

learnedself.post_attention_layernorm(hidden_states) · 1035

Rescale each position’s features using their root mean square, then apply learned gain.

\begin{aligned}m_2(x)&=\frac{1}{d}\sum_{j=1}^d x_j^2\\y&=\gamma_{\mathrm{ffn}}\odot\frac{x}{\sqrt{m_2(x)+\varepsilon}}\\\varepsilon&=10^{-5}\end{aligned}

in: $h_{\mathrm{ffn}}$ [B batch, 1 positions, 7168 d]
out: $x_{\mathrm{ffn}}$ [B batch, 1 positions, 7168 d]
parameters: 7,168 · × 24 MLA layers = 172,032

Parameters

7,168 parameters per instance.

Exact per-instance accounting
Component	Calculation	Parameters
Learned gain	$7{,}168$	7,168
Per-instance total		7,168

Each normalization instance owns its learned gain vector.

Across 24 independent MLA layers: $7{,}168 \times 24 = 172{,}032$ parameters.

Derived from the configured feature width; the model total matches the checkpoint’s tensors.

Codemodeling_kimi_linear.py 226–236, 973–1046

modeling_kimi_linear.py 226–236

class KimiRMSNorm(nn.Module):
    def __init__(self, hidden_size, eps=1e-6):
        super().__init__()
        self.weight = nn.Parameter(torch.ones(hidden_size))
        self.variance_epsilon = eps

    def forward(self, hidden_states):
        dtype = hidden_states.dtype
        x = hidden_states.float()
        x = x * torch.rsqrt(x.pow(2).mean(-1, keepdim=True) + self.variance_epsilon)
        return self.weight * x.to(dtype)

modeling_kimi_linear.py 973–1046

    def _forward_attn_residual(
        self,
        hidden_states: torch.Tensor,
        attention_mask: torch.Tensor | None = None,
        position_ids: torch.LongTensor | None = None,
        past_key_values: tuple[torch.Tensor] | None = None,
        output_attentions: bool | None = False,
        use_cache: bool | None = False,
        block_residual: torch.Tensor | None = None,
        **kwargs: Unpack[FlashAttentionKwargs],
    ):
        batch_size, seq_len, hidden_size = hidden_states.shape
        prefix_sum = hidden_states

        if block_residual is not None and block_residual.shape[1] > 0:
            hidden_states = _apply_attn_res(
                prefix_sum.view(-1, hidden_size),
                block_residual,
                self.self_attention_res_proj,
                self.self_attention_res_norm,
            ).view(batch_size, seq_len, hidden_size)

        if self.layer_idx % self.attn_res_block_size == 0:
            block_residual = torch.cat(
                [block_residual, prefix_sum.view(-1, hidden_size).unsqueeze(1)], dim=1)
            prefix_sum = None

        hidden_states = self.input_layernorm(hidden_states)

        # Self Attention
        if self.is_linear_attn is False:
            hidden_states = self.self_attn(
                hidden_states=hidden_states,
                attention_mask=attention_mask,
                position_ids=position_ids,
                past_key_values=past_key_values,
                output_attentions=output_attentions,
                use_cache=use_cache,
                **kwargs,
            )
        else:
            hidden_states = self.self_attn(
                hidden_states=hidden_states,
                attention_mask=attention_mask,
                cache_params=past_key_values,
                output_attentions=output_attentions,
                use_cache=use_cache,
                **kwargs,
            )

        if prefix_sum is not None:
            prefix_sum = prefix_sum + hidden_states
        else:
            prefix_sum = hidden_states

        hidden_states = _apply_attn_res(
            prefix_sum.view(-1, hidden_size),
            block_residual,
            self.mlp_res_proj,
            self.mlp_res_norm,
        ).view(batch_size, seq_len, hidden_size)

        hidden_states = self.post_attention_layernorm(hidden_states)
        if hasattr(self, "block_sparse_moe"):
            hidden_states = self.block_sparse_moe(hidden_states)
        else:
            hidden_states = self.mlp(hidden_states)

        if prefix_sum is None:
            prefix_sum = hidden_states
        else:
            prefix_sum = prefix_sum + hidden_states

        return prefix_sum, block_residual

Sources2

Direct evidence

RMSNorm owns one gain per feature and computes in float32.

rmsnorm · moonshotai/Kimi-K3 / modeling_kimi_linear.py
Pinned revision f831ab668142 ↗ · lines 226–236

Read code excerpt

class KimiRMSNorm(nn.Module):
    def __init__(self, hidden_size, eps=1e-6):
        super().__init__()
        self.weight = nn.Parameter(torch.ones(hidden_size))
        self.variance_epsilon = eps

    def forward(self, hidden_states):
        dtype = hidden_states.dtype
        x = hidden_states.float()
        x = x * torch.rsqrt(x.pow(2).mean(-1, keepdim=True) + self.variance_epsilon)
        return self.weight * x.to(dtype)

Direct evidence

With attention residuals, a layer mixes its attention input from the stored sums and the running sum, stores the running sum and starts a new one when its index is divisible by the block size, adds the attention output to the running sum, mixes the feed-forward input the same way, and adds the feed-forward output.

block-forward · moonshotai/Kimi-K3 / modeling_kimi_linear.py
Pinned revision f831ab668142 ↗ · lines 973–1046

Read code excerpt

    def _forward_attn_residual(
        self,
        hidden_states: torch.Tensor,
        attention_mask: torch.Tensor | None = None,
        position_ids: torch.LongTensor | None = None,
        past_key_values: tuple[torch.Tensor] | None = None,
        output_attentions: bool | None = False,
        use_cache: bool | None = False,
        block_residual: torch.Tensor | None = None,
        **kwargs: Unpack[FlashAttentionKwargs],
    ):
        batch_size, seq_len, hidden_size = hidden_states.shape
        prefix_sum = hidden_states

        if block_residual is not None and block_residual.shape[1] > 0:
            hidden_states = _apply_attn_res(
                prefix_sum.view(-1, hidden_size),
                block_residual,
                self.self_attention_res_proj,
                self.self_attention_res_norm,
            ).view(batch_size, seq_len, hidden_size)

        if self.layer_idx % self.attn_res_block_size == 0:
            block_residual = torch.cat(
                [block_residual, prefix_sum.view(-1, hidden_size).unsqueeze(1)], dim=1)
            prefix_sum = None

        hidden_states = self.input_layernorm(hidden_states)

        # Self Attention
        if self.is_linear_attn is False:
            hidden_states = self.self_attn(
                hidden_states=hidden_states,
                attention_mask=attention_mask,
                position_ids=position_ids,
                past_key_values=past_key_values,
                output_attentions=output_attentions,
                use_cache=use_cache,
                **kwargs,
            )
        else:
            hidden_states = self.self_attn(
                hidden_states=hidden_states,
                attention_mask=attention_mask,
                cache_params=past_key_values,
                output_attentions=output_attentions,
                use_cache=use_cache,
                **kwargs,
            )

        if prefix_sum is not None:
            prefix_sum = prefix_sum + hidden_states
        else:
            prefix_sum = hidden_states

        hidden_states = _apply_attn_res(
            prefix_sum.view(-1, hidden_size),
            block_residual,
            self.mlp_res_proj,
            self.mlp_res_norm,
        ).view(batch_size, seq_len, hidden_size)

        hidden_states = self.post_attention_layernorm(hidden_states)
        if hasattr(self, "block_sparse_moe"):
            hidden_states = self.block_sparse_moe(hidden_states)
        else:
            hidden_states = self.mlp(hidden_states)

        if prefix_sum is None:
            prefix_sum = hidden_states
        else:
            prefix_sum = prefix_sum + hidden_states

        return prefix_sum, block_residual