Phase 2 of the QPU-default substrate campaign — eliminate
vkAllocateCommandBuffers from the dispatch hot path.
Attaches a VkCommandBuffer to each v3d_pipeline, allocated once in
v3d_runner_create_pipeline() and freed in destroy_pipeline(). The
five dispatch_*_qpu sites switch from v3d_runner_alloc_cmdbuf() to
v3d_runner_pipeline_cmdbuf_reset() — vkResetCommandBuffer is O(1)
versus the driver-side allocation walk. Pool was already created
with VK_COMMAND_POOL_CREATE_RESET_COMMAND_BUFFER_BIT so reset is
permitted.
Microbench (hertz, Pi 5, kernel 6.18.29, V3D 7.1):
before (task 160 pool only):
steady-state p50: 76.44 us
steady-state mean: 77.95 us
after (task 160 pool + task 161 persistent cb):
steady-state p50: 54.56 us
steady-state mean: 56.00 us
-> 28% per-dispatch reduction
The remaining ~54 us steady-state is dominated by vkQueueWaitIdle +
shader execution + the two memcpy(in/out) on the dst buffer — task
162 (dmabuf import for dst) targets the memcpy half.
test_api_idct stays bit-exact across CPU/QPU/AUTO substrates.
Refs daedalus-fourier task #161.
Per the QPU-default substrate decree 2026-05-23: the per-dispatch
vkAllocateMemory in dispatch_*_qpu was the biggest single fixable
contributor to QPU dispatch overhead. This pools v3d_buffer
allocations by power-of-2 size class so the second-and-subsequent
dispatch hits a freelist instead of paying ~10-50us of Mesa-V3D7
memory-allocation cost per call.
API additions (v3d_runner.h):
- v3d_runner_acquire_buffer(): pulls from per-bucket freelist;
falls through to v3d_runner_create_buffer() on miss.
- v3d_runner_release_buffer(): pushes back onto the freelist; the
backing VkBuffer/VkDeviceMemory only get vkFreeMemory'd in
v3d_runner_destroy().
- v3d_runner_pool_total_bytes(): diagnostic watermark.
Size classes 2^8..2^23 (256 B to 8 MiB). Oversize requests fall
through to non-pooled (vkAllocateMemory) for both ends — pool stays
correct, just degenerates to old behaviour for those calls.
Migration: daedalus_core.c dispatch_*_qpu paths globally swap
create_buffer → acquire_buffer and destroy_buffer → release_buffer.
All five QPU dispatch functions (idct8 / lpf / mc_8h / cdef /
h264_deblock) now reuse buffers across calls. test_api_idct stays
bit-exact (4096/4096 bytes on CPU/QPU/AUTO substrates on hertz).
Microbench (tests/bench_pool_overhead.c) on hertz (Pi 5,
6.18.29+rpt-rpi-2712, V3D 7.1):
call 0: 434.89 us (cold — 3x vkAllocateMemory)
call 1: 100.06 us (pool hit on all 3 buffers)
steady-state:
p50: 76.44 us
p90: 90.52 us
mean: 77.95 us
first-call / steady-state ratio: 5.7x
The remaining ~76us steady-state is dominated by vkQueueWaitIdle +
shader execution + per-call descriptor-set update + command-buffer
allocation — addressed in follow-on tasks 161 (persistent cmdbuf)
and 162 (dmabuf import for dst, eliminates memcpy in/out).
Refs daedalus-fourier task #160.
First QPU IDCT8 kernel running and bit-exact on V3D 7.1 via Mesa
v3dv compute. Five iterations through a Phase 7→Phase 4' loopback;
production kernel is v4.
New files:
- src/v3d_runner.{c,h} — reusable Vulkan compute plumbing (instance,
V3D device picker, HOST_VISIBLE|COHERENT
SSBOs with mmap, compute pipeline from .spv,
enables storageBuffer{8,16}BitAccess)
- src/v3d_idct8.comp — VP9 8x8 DCT_DCT IDCT add, v4 production:
256 invocations/WG, 2 blocks/subgroup
(no idle lanes), uint8 dst SSBO (race-free
per phase5 finding 5), unrolled writes
(no chained ternary), oob-flag pattern
(barrier-safe per phase5 finding 7)
- tests/bench_v3d_idct.c — M1' bit-exact gate + M2 throughput vs C ref
- docs/phase7.md — full iteration journey + decision verdict
CMakeLists.txt updated to build the new shader, library, and bench
when DAEDALUS_BUILD_VULKAN=ON.
Iteration record (1920x1088 luma, 32640 blocks/dispatch, N=3):
ver change R ns/block
v1 first-light 0.230 533
v2 kill ternary + 2-blocks-per-sg 0.474 258
v3 per-pass scope oN 0.481 254 (noise)
v4 WG 64 -> 256 invocations 0.947 129
v5 packed uint32 coeff reads 0.938 130 (noise, reverted)
v4 final N=3 0.918 +/- 0.033
Bit-exactness 100.0000% across all iterations (10000-block sample
on 128x128, 32640-block sample on 1080p) against both the C
reference (tests/vp9_idct8_ref.c) and the vendored FFmpeg NEON
ff_vp9_idct_idct_8x8_add_neon.
Key learning over the Phase 5 review's prediction model: the
chained ternary was NOT a spill killer on V3D 7.1 (shaderdb
showed 0:0 spills:fills even in v1). The actual lever was
workgroup-size-driven latency hiding — going from 64 to 256
invocations doubled throughput with the same compiled code
(270 inst, 2 threads, 21 max-temps, 0 spills) because the
v3dv scheduler had 4x more in-flight work to overlap TMU
latency.
Verdict per phase1.md decision rules: YELLOW band (0.5 <= R < 1.0)
by a wide margin, near GREEN boundary. Phase 1 YELLOW rule:
add M4 (concurrent CPU+QPU throughput) before honest-close or
continue. M4 is the next measurement, not more shader tuning —
at R = 0.92 with all 4 A76 cores still 100% free for other work,
the question is whether the system aggregate beats pure 4-core
NEON.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
claude-noether
marfrit