Second kernel candidate per phase7_M4.md verdict "next-kernel cycle
authorised". VP9 4-tap inner loop filter, horizontal direction,
8-pixel edge (libavcodec ff_vp9_loop_filter_h_4_8_neon as baseline).
Different workload shape from IDCT - boundary streaming, lighter
compute per unit, per-row conditionals - tests whether QPU win
generalises.
docs/k2_deblock_phase1.md - goal-setting. Same R-band decision rules
as cycle 1 (phase1.md), with the cycle-1 calibration adjustment:
ORANGE band is no longer auto-close because M4 showed mixed > pure
CPU even at modest R when CPU bandwidth-saturates.
docs/k2_deblock_phase2.md - situation analysis. C reference already
in vendored snapshot (vp9dsp_template.c:1780-1898). Fetched
vp9lpf_neon.S fresh (1334 lines, LGPL-2.1+, FFmpeg n7.1.3 pin,
SHA-256 384e49e7...). PROVENANCE.md updated.
docs/k2_deblock_phase3.md - NEON baseline:
M1''_c bit-exact 100.0000 % (10000 random edges)
M3'' throughput 48.285 Medge/s (20.7 ns/edge, single A76)
per-frame 1080p-eq 748 FPS (worst case 64 530 edges/frame)
cycles/edge ~58 (=20.7ns x 2.8GHz), ~7 cycles/row
LPF is 5.9x faster per-unit than IDCT M3 (20.7 vs 122 ns), so the
QPU break-even point moves down. Predicted R''_v1 band ~0.5-0.9
- frame-level batching amortises the same 33us dispatch overhead;
workload becomes bandwidth-bound rather than compute-bound
(~5.7 MB/frame traffic at 64 530 edges x ~88 B per edge).
New artifacts:
- tests/vp9_lpf_ref.c - standalone bit-exact C ref (8-bit, wd=4
inner only; clean transcription)
- tests/bench_neon_lpf.c - M1''_c gate + M3'' time-based bench
(5s window, edge-content-biased RNG for
realistic fm/hev hit rates)
- external/ffmpeg-snapshot/libavcodec/aarch64/vp9lpf_neon.S
- CMakeLists.txt updated with bench_neon_lpf target
Phase 4 next: plan the QPU LPF compute shader. Cycle 1's phase4.md
+ phase5.md + phase7.md learnings apply directly - bake in the v4
winning patterns from the start (WG=256, edges-per-subgroup
pattern adapted from blocks, uint8_t dst SSBO, oob flag, unrolled
writes).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This is a from-scratch initial commit on a fresh .git. The original
scaffold commit (7510b56) and the earlier session's working-tree
docs were lost in a 2026-05-18 10:25 working-tree wipe; the corrupted
.git is preserved at .git-broken-2026-05-18/ (gitignored) for
forensic inspection.
Scope re-anchored from Path A (custom VPU firmware on VC7 scalar
cores; blocked by BCM2712 silicon-RoT mask-ROM signature check)
to Path B (QPU compute kernels via Mesa v3d / Vulkan compute or
direct DRM, on stock signed Pi 5 / CM5). See README.md and
docs/phase0.md for the substrate audit that closed Path A.
Phases closed:
Phase 0 — substrate audit; Path A blocked, Path B open;
codec-back-end-fits-QPU finding (docs/phase0.md)
Phase 1 — first kernel locked (VP9 / AV1 8x8 inverse DCT) with
publish-before-measure R = M2/M3 decision rules
(docs/phase1.md)
Phase 2 — reference impls mapped; FFmpeg n7.1.3 source vendored
under external/ffmpeg-snapshot/ (PROVENANCE.md pins
commit f46e514 + per-file SHA-256s) (docs/phase2.md)
Phase 3 — real baseline measurements on hertz (docs/phase3.md):
M1 bit-exact 100.0000 % (10000/10000)
M3 NEON IDCT8 single 8.171 Mblock/s (122.4 ns/block)
M5a empty Vulkan submit 22.66 us
M5b 1-WG noop dispatch 55.60 us
M5 delta 32.95 us/dispatch
=> per-dispatch overhead is ~455x per-NEON-block cost;
Phase 4 must batch at frame level or close to it.
Build harness in place: CMakeLists.txt + tests/{bench_neon_idct.c,
vp9_idct8_ref.c, bench_vulkan_dispatch.c, shaders/noop.comp} +
external/ffmpeg-snapshot/config.h shim (7 defines + EXTERN_ASM).
Builds clean on Debian Trixie aarch64 with cmake 3.31, ninja 1.12,
libvulkan-dev 1.4.309, glslang-tools 15.1.0. Vendored FFmpeg .S
assembles via the config.h shim.
Next: Phase 4 (plan first QPU IDCT kernel under the M5 batching
constraint) -> Phase 5 second-model review -> Phase 6 implement.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
marfrit