Path B pivot + Phase 0-3 closed with first baseline numbers

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>
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---
phase: 2
status: closed 2026-05-18
date_opened: 2026-05-18
parent: phase1.md
target_kernel: VP9 8×8 inverse DCT (DCT_DCT variant, 8-bit pixels)
---
# Phase 2 — Situation analysis
Per `dev_process.md`:
> Document current state. Identify constraints, dependencies, known
> failure modes. Reset context here — do not carry assumptions from
> prior sessions; re-read CLAUDE.md, relevant memory files, run
> `git status`, re-verify reachability.
## 1. Context reset
- Working tree state: dirty (Phase 0/1/2 docs not yet committed).
`.git-broken-2026-05-18/` preserved as a forensic artifact of
the 2026-05-18 10:25 working-tree wipe (cause undetermined).
- CLAUDE.md re-read: no contradictions with the Path B scope set
in README §"Architecture (Path B)".
- hertz reachability: confirmed via SSH; `vcgencmd`, `vulkaninfo`,
`apt`, sudo NOPASSWD all working as of 2026-05-17 inventory.
Mesa 25.0.7 / Vulkan 1.3.305 / V3D 7.1.7 stable.
## 2. Reference implementations — VP9 8×8 IDCT (DCT_DCT)
The Phase 1 kernel has *two* canonical reference implementations
in FFmpeg n7.1.3 (the version installed on hertz). The harness
will link both: the C path as the bit-exact gate (M1), the NEON
path as the throughput baseline (M3).
### 2.1 C reference
- **Source**: `libavcodec/vp9dsp_template.c`, function `idct_idct_8x8_add_c`
- **Spec basis**: VP9 specification §8.7 — Inverse transform process
- **Signature**:
```c
static void idct_idct_8x8_add_c(uint8_t *_dst, ptrdiff_t stride,
int16_t *_block, int eob);
```
- **Algorithm** (8-bit path):
1. If `eob == 1` (DC-only): single `(coef * 11585 * 11585)` round, broadcast to 8×8 with `+pred, clamp[0,255]`.
2. Otherwise: 8 column passes through `idct8_1d` → tmp[64]. Zero the input block. 8 row passes through `idct8_1d` → out[8]. Per-element `(out + 16) >> 5`, add to `dst`, `av_clip_pixel`.
- **`idct8_1d`**: 1-D 8-point inverse DCT, 8 trigonometric multiply-add stages with Q14 fixed-point constants then 8-butterfly add/sub stages. All arithmetic is signed int32 (`dctint`).
- **Q14 constants** (matched against VP9 spec §8.7.1.4):
| symbol | value | trig identity |
|---|---|---|
| cospi_16_64 | 11585 | cos(π/4) × 2^14 ≈ 0.70711 |
| cospi_24_64 | 6270 | cos(3π/8) × 2^14 ≈ 0.38268 |
| cospi_8_64 | 15137 | sin(3π/8) × 2^14 ≈ 0.92388 |
| cospi_28_64 | 3196 | cos(7π/16) × 2^14 ≈ 0.19509 |
| cospi_4_64 | 16069 | sin(7π/16) × 2^14 ≈ 0.98079 |
| cospi_20_64 | 9102 | cos(5π/16) × 2^14 ≈ 0.55557 |
| cospi_12_64 | 13623 | sin(5π/16) × 2^14 ≈ 0.83147 |
Rounding convention: `(product + (1 << 13)) >> 14`, i.e. round-half-up at bit 14.
- **License**: LGPL-2.1-or-later (FFmpeg).
- **Side effect**: zeroes the input `block[]` (idempotency requirement; matches spec).
### 2.2 NEON reference
- **Source**: `libavcodec/aarch64/vp9itxfm_neon.S`, symbol `ff_vp9_idct_idct_8x8_add_neon`
- **Signature** (same as C):
```
void ff_vp9_idct_idct_8x8_add_neon(uint8_t *dst, ptrdiff_t stride,
int16_t *block, int eob);
```
Registers: `x0=dst, x1=stride, x2=block, w3=eob`.
- **Internal dependencies** (must be copied alongside the .S):
| macro / symbol | location | role |
|---|---|---|
| `idct8` | `vp9itxfm_neon.S` | 1-D 8-pt IDCT, fully unrolled with `dmbutterfly*` |
| `dmbutterfly0` | `vp9itxfm_neon.S` | rotation by π/4 (the `cospi_16_64` case) |
| `dmbutterfly` | `vp9itxfm_neon.S` | general 2-input rotation `[a,b] → [a·c1b·c2, a·c2+b·c1]` (`Q14`) |
| `dmbutterfly_l` | `vp9itxfm_neon.S` | wide-form (4×i32 acc) for `dmbutterfly` |
| `butterfly_8h` | `vp9itxfm_neon.S` | trivial `[a+b, ab]` on `int16x8_t` |
| `transpose_8x8H` | `libavcodec/aarch64/neon.S` | in-place 8×8 i16 transpose |
| `idct_coeffs` | `vp9itxfm_neon.S` (`const`) | Q14 trig constants table, aligned 4 |
| `movrel` | `libavutil/aarch64/asm.S` | PIC-aware constant-pool relocation helper |
- **License**: LGPL-2.1-or-later (Google, 2016).
- **Performance shape**: full unrolled 8-pt butterfly with NEON `smull/smlsl/smlal` + `rshrn` for the Q14 round-shift; output uses `sqxtun` for saturated narrow to u8. Estimated ~80 NEON instructions for the steady state (non-DC) path.
### 2.3 AV1 equivalence note
AV1's 8×8 DCT_DCT transform (`av1_iidentity8_iidentity8_c` vs `av1_idct8_idct8_c` family in `libavcodec/av1dsp/...`) shares the same 1-D 8-point structure but with **different** scaling: AV1 uses 12-bit fixed-point (`>> 12`) and a slightly different rounding shift due to its different transform-stage bit growth model. Calling our VP9 IDCT shader on AV1 coefficients will produce wrong output. **AV1 support is out of scope for Phase 1.** A Phase-N variant can fork the shader with the AV1 constants once Phase 1 has proven the VP9 path.
## 3. Vulkan compute dispatch path
Hertz exposes V3D 7.1 via Mesa's v3dv driver as Vulkan
`PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_INTEGRATED_GPU`, API 1.3.305, conformance
1.3.8.3. The compute-only dispatch path is:
```
host program
├─ vkCreateInstance / vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices (picks V3D 7.1.7.0)
├─ vkCreateDevice (queue family with COMPUTE_BIT, no graphics needed)
├─ vkCreateBuffer x N (SSBOs for block coeffs in / dst pixels in+out)
│ - buffer flags: STORAGE_BUFFER_BIT | TRANSFER_SRC/DST
│ - memory type: HOST_VISIBLE | HOST_COHERENT (zero-copy on shared LPDDR4x)
├─ vkCreateDescriptorSetLayout (≤8 SSBOs per layout — Pi 5 limit)
├─ vkCreateShaderModule (SPIR-V from glslang)
├─ vkCreateComputePipeline
├─ vkBeginCommandBuffer
│ vkCmdBindPipeline / vkCmdBindDescriptorSets / vkCmdPushConstants
│ vkCmdDispatch(group_count_x, 1, 1) # one WG per ~K blocks
├─ vkQueueSubmit + vkQueueWaitIdle (or fence) — this is the measured op
└─ (read back via the HOST_VISIBLE buffer, or alias it to the same memory the CPU populated)
```
Per Phase 0 §2 inside-view limits, the relevant constraints
for this kernel:
- ≤8 SSBOs per stage → group inputs/outputs into ≤8 bindings (we
only need 2: `block[]` in, `dst[]` in/out).
- Shared mem ≤16 KiB → each 8×8 block fits trivially (256 B in
i16 plus 64 B in u8). One WG can carry dozens of blocks of
shared state if useful.
- Subgroup size = 16 (fixed). One workgroup of 64 invocations =
4 subgroups; one block per subgroup is a natural shape (each
16-lane subgroup processes 8×8 = 64 pixels in 4 cycles of
subgroup work).
## 4. Build path on hertz
Already installed (2026-05-17): cmake 3.31, ninja 1.12, gcc (Debian
trixie default), `libvulkan-dev 1.4.309`, `glslang-tools 15.1.0`,
`spirv-tools 2025.1`, `libdrm-dev 2.4.131`, `vulkan-tools 1.4.304`.
Missing but cheap:
- `libavcodec-dev` — only needed if the harness wants to link
against system libavcodec for cross-checks against the dynamic
dispatcher. *Not* needed for the source-copy approach (preferred,
see §5).
## 5. Reference-copy strategy (vs system-libavcodec link)
**Decision: source-copy the 3 FFmpeg files into `external/ffmpeg-snapshot/`.**
Rationale:
- System `libavcodec.so` on hertz is symbol-stripped (`nm` returns
empty for `ff_vp9_idct_*`). Internal NEON entry points are not
reachable via `dlsym`.
- The two reference implementations (C, NEON) plus their macro/
data dependencies total ~3 files / ~600 lines. Source-copy is
smaller than the dlopen plumbing would be.
- LGPL-2.1-or-later (FFmpeg license) is propagation-compatible
with the harness binary if the harness binary itself is GPL
or LGPL. The kernel shaders and dispatch library stay
separately-licensed (BSD-2-Clause, default for this project).
- Pinning to `n7.1.3` matches hertz's runtime libavcodec version,
so any in-session sanity cross-check against the running Mesa
/ video tooling stays consistent.
Files to vendor:
| Source | License | Target path under `daedalus-fourier/` |
|---|---|---|
| `libavcodec/vp9dsp_template.c` | LGPL-2.1+ | `external/ffmpeg-snapshot/vp9dsp_template.c` |
| `libavcodec/aarch64/vp9itxfm_neon.S` | LGPL-2.1+ | `external/ffmpeg-snapshot/aarch64/vp9itxfm_neon.S` |
| `libavcodec/aarch64/neon.S` (for `transpose_8x8H`) | LGPL-2.1+ | `external/ffmpeg-snapshot/aarch64/neon.S` |
| `libavutil/aarch64/asm.S` (for `movrel`, `function`, `endfunc`) | LGPL-2.1+ | `external/ffmpeg-snapshot/aarch64/asm.S` |
| (whatever else `vp9dsp_template.c` transitively needs) | LGPL-2.1+ | as required |
A `external/ffmpeg-snapshot/COPYING.LGPL` and `external/ffmpeg-snapshot/PROVENANCE.md` document the upstream commit (n7.1.3 tag, commit hash) and the verbatim-copy guarantee.
## 6. Known constraints / failure modes carried from Phase 0
Repeated here so Phase 4 (plan) can bind against them without
re-derivation:
- **C1**: shaderFloat16 = false → all shader arithmetic must be int32 (we are int anyway — no risk).
- **C2**: maxComputeSharedMemorySize = 16 KiB → kernel must not require more (8×8 IDCT trivially fits even with many blocks per WG).
- **C3**: maxPerStageDescriptorStorageBuffers = 8 → we need only 2 (coeffs + dst), no risk.
- **C4**: subgroupSupportedOperations = BASIC + VOTE only → no `subgroupAdd`/etc. for accumulator reductions. Workaround: the IDCT structure is fully data-parallel without reductions; this constraint doesn't bite.
- **C5**: VC7 has SMUL24 but no INT8 MAC. Our Q14 multiplies are i16×i16→i32 — the multiplicands fit in 17 bits, so SMUL24 covers it. No INT8/INT4 issues.
- **C6**: shared LPDDR4x bus; GPU sees ~47 GB/s vs CPU ~1215 GB/s. For 8×8 IDCT, working set is tiny (≤320 B/block), so per-block bandwidth is not the bottleneck; per-dispatch submit overhead is.
- **C7**: VPM read-stall serialization. If we hand-write QPU asm (we won't, in Phase 1) this would matter; the Vulkan compute path lets the v3d_compiler schedule for us.
- **C8**: VC7 thermal throttle at 85°C GPU / 80°C CPU. Phase 7 measurements should record temp before/during/after to flag throttling.
## 7. What Phase 2 does *not* close
- The harness architecture (single binary? Two binaries — one for
bit-exact, one for throughput?). Phase 4 picks.
- Block-per-WG dispatch geometry. Phase 4 + Phase 6 sweep.
- Random-coefficient generation strategy (uniform i16 vs
realistic-distribution; the latter affects DC-only path
frequency). Phase 4 picks; Phase 7 may re-evaluate.
- Whether NEON measurement uses `clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW)`
per-call (high overhead) or batched (more realistic for codec
use). Phase 3 picks during baseline collection.
## 8. Hand-off to Phase 3
Phase 3 measures:
- **M3-prelim**: NEON `ff_vp9_idct_idct_8x8_add_neon` throughput
on hertz, batched over 10⁶ random blocks, single-threaded,
4-thread, sched-isolated. This is the *floor*.
- **M5-prelim**: Vulkan dispatch overhead — pipeline create cost
(one-time), per-`vkCmdDispatch` cost (per-frame-equivalent),
per-`vkQueueSubmit + vkQueueWaitIdle` cost (per-completion).
Bound below which kernel batching is mandatory.
Both are measurements on the *existing* substrate. Neither
requires writing any shader code. Phase 3 closes before Phase 4
(plan) begins.