There isn't really a real writeup of all the mapping, but this should hopefully be a good central starting point if any maintainers needs some understanding of when each feature was added and the general specs of each. Updating it with more accurate information is greatly appreciated
Tensor Naming Scheme
This is not definitive, but is helpful when reading sourcecode or console output to understand what each means typically.
<Encoding>_<Variants>
<Encoding>
: This defines the most common encoding of individual weights in the model- Floating Point Formats:
BF16
: 16-bit bfloat16 Google Brain truncated form of 32-bit IEEE 754 (1 sign bit, 8 exponent bits, 7 fractional bits)F64
: 64-bit IEEE 754 floats per weight (1 sign bit, 11 exponent bits, 52 fractional bits)F32
: 32-bit IEEE 754 floats per weight (1 sign bit, 8 exponent bits, 23 fractional bits)F16
: 16-bit IEEE 754 floats per weight (1 sign bit, 5 exponent bits, 10 fractional bits)
- Integer formats:
I<X>
: X bits per weight, whereX
could be4
(for 4 bits) or8
(for 8 bits) etc...
- Quantized formats:
Q<X>
: X bits per weight, whereX
could be4
(for 4 bits) or8
(for 8 bits) etc...KQ<X>
(orQ<X>_K
) : k-quant based models. X bits per weight, whereX
could be4
(for 4 bits) or8
(for 8 bits) etc...IQ<X>
: i-quant based models. X bits per weight, whereX
could be4
(for 4 bits) or8
(for 8 bits) etc...
- Floating Point Formats:
<Variants>
: This represents different strategies of packing quantized weights into a gguf file. This is because we may want a mix of different bit sizes for weights of varying importance, or we may be encoding a general offset to a block or super-block. This may be omitted if trivial or initial attempt, refer to encoding scheme name table for details.
Tensor Encoding Scheme PR
- PR Filter of all Tensor Encoding Scheme Related Pull Requests
- This is useful for locating Pull Requests where we merged in a new encoding scheme (or fix a bug with encoding etc...)
Tensor Encoding Scheme Mapping
Scheme | ggml_ftype C enumeration name |
ggml_type C enum name |
Bits/Weight | Data Type | Block Configuration | Quantized Weight Formula | Initial Commits Or Pull Request Sources (of ggml_type ) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BF16 | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_BF16 | GGML_TYPE_BF16 | 16 | bfloat16 (trunc 32b IEEE754) | Homogonous Array Of Floating Weights | - | llama.cpp PR: Introduce bfloat16 support #6412 |
F16 | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_F16 | GGML_TYPE_F16 | 16 | 16-bit IEEE 754 | Homogonous Array Of Floating Weights | - | llama.cpp CM: Initial Release |
F32 | GGML_FTYPE_ALL_F32 | GGML_TYPE_F32 | 32 | 32-bit IEEE 754 | Homogonous Array Of Floating Weights | - | llama.cpp CM: Initial Release |
F64 | - | GGML_TYPE_F64 | 64 | 64-bit IEEE 754 | Homogonous Array Of Floating Weights | - | llama.cpp CM: Add support for I64 and F64 arrays #6062 |
I8 | - | GGML_TYPE_I8 | 8 | (signed?) integer | - | - | llama.cpp PR: Designate enum vals for integer types #6050 |
I16 | - | GGML_TYPE_I16 | 16 | (signed?) integer | - | - | llama.cpp PR: Designate enum vals for integer types #6050 |
I32 | - | GGML_TYPE_I32 | 32 | (signed?) integer | - | - | llama.cpp PR: Designate enum vals for integer types #6050 |
I64 | - | GGML_TYPE_I64 | 64 | (signed?) integer | - | - | llama.cpp PR: Add support for I64 and F64 arrays #6062 |
Q4_0 | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q4_0 | GGML_TYPE_Q4_0 | 4 | round to nearest quantization | Each block has 32 weights | w = q * block_scale | llama.cpp CM: Initial Release |
Q4_1 | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q4_1 | GGML_TYPE_Q4_1 | 4 | round to nearest quantization | Each block has 32 weights | w = q * block_scale + block_minimum | llama.cpp CM: Initial Release |
Q4_1_F16 | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q4_1_SOME_F16 | - | 4 | round to nearest quantization | Each block has 32 weights (token embedding and output weights are F16) | w = q * block_scale + block_minimum | llama.cpp CM: add Q5 WASM SIMD + GGML_FTYPE |
Q8_0 | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q8_0 | GGML_TYPE_Q8_0 | 8 | round to nearest quantization | Each block has 32 weights | w = q * block_scale | llama.cpp PR: Add Q8_0 quantization format (rename the old one to Q8_1) (ARM NEON) #1179 |
Q8_1 | - | GGML_TYPE_Q8_1 | 8 | round to nearest quantization | Each block has 32 weights | w = q * block_scale + block_minimum | llama.cpp PR: Add Q8_0 quantization for intermediate results #951 (Note: Renamed to Q8_1 in later commit) |
Q5_0 | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q5_0 | GGML_TYPE_Q5_0 | 5 | round to nearest quantization | Each block has 32 weights | w = q * block_scale | llama.cpp PR: Add Q5_0 and Q5_1 quantization #1187 |
Q5_1 | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q5_1 | GGML_TYPE_Q5_1 | 5 | round to nearest quantization | Each block has 32 weights | w = q * block_scale + block_minimum | llama.cpp PR: Add Q5_0 and Q5_1 quantization #1187 |
Q2_K | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q2_K | GGML_TYPE_Q2_K | 2.5625 | k-quantization | Superblocks has 16 blocks ( 16 weights per block) | w = q * block_scale (4-bit) + block_min (4-bit) | llama.cpp PR: k-quants #1684 |
Q3_K | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q3_K | GGML_TYPE_Q3_K | 3.4375 | k-quantization | Superblocks has 16 blocks ( 16 weights per block) | w = q * block_scale (6-bit) | llama.cpp PR: k-quants #1684 |
Q4_K | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q4_K | GGML_TYPE_Q4_K | 4.5 | k-quantization | Superblocks has 8 blocks ( 32 weights per block) | w = q * block_scale (6-bit) + block_min (6-bit) | llama.cpp PR: k-quants #1684 |
Q5_K | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q5_K | GGML_TYPE_Q5_K | 5.5 | k-quantization | Superblocks has 8 blocks ( 32 weights per block) | w = q * block_scale (6-bit) + block_min (6-bit) | llama.cpp PR: k-quants #1684 |
Q6_K | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_Q6_K | GGML_TYPE_Q6_K | 6.5625 | k-quantization | Superblocks has 16 blocks ( 16 weights per block) | w = q * block_scale (8-bit) | llama.cpp PR: k-quants #1684 |
Q8_K | - | GGML_TYPE_Q8_K | 8.0 | k-quantization | Superblocks has 1 blocks (256 weights per block) (Only used for intermediate quants) | w = q * block_scale (8-bit) | llama.cpp PR: k-quants #1684 |
IQ1_S | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_IQ1_S | GGML_TYPE_IQ1_S | 1.5 | i-quantization | Superblocks has 8 blocks ( 32 weights per block) | w = func(superblock_scale, importance_matrix) | llama.cpp PR: 1.5 bit quantization #5453 |
IQ1_M | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_IQ1_M | GGML_TYPE_IQ1_M | 1.75 | i-quantization | Superblocks has 16 blocks ( 16 weights per block) | w = func(superblock_scale, importance_matrix) | llama.cpp PR: IQ1_M: 1.75 bpw quantization #6302 |
IQ2_XXS | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_IQ2_XXS | GGML_TYPE_IQ2_XXS | 2.0625 | i-quantization | Superblocks has 8 blocks ( 32 weights per block) | w = func(superblock_scale, importance_matrix) | llama.cpp PR: SOTA 2-bit quants #4773 |
IQ2_XS | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_IQ2_XS | GGML_TYPE_IQ2_XS | 2.31 | i-quantization | Superblocks has 16 blocks ( 16 weights per block) | w = func(superblock_scale, importance_matrix) | llama.cpp PR: SOTA 2-bit quants - part 2 #4856 |
IQ2_S | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_IQ2_S | GGML_TYPE_IQ2_S | 2.5 | i-quantization | ? | w = func(superblock_scale, importance_matrix) | llama.cpp PR: Adding IQ2_S and IQ2_M to complete coverage of the 2-3 bit quantization range #5721 |
IQ3_S | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_IQ3_S | GGML_TYPE_IQ3_S | 3.4375 | i-quantization | ? | w = func(superblock_scale, importance_matrix) | llama.cpp PR: IQ3_S: a much better alternative to Q3_K #5676 |
IQ3_XXS | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_IQ3_XXS | GGML_TYPE_IQ3_XXS | 3.0625 | i-quantization | Superblocks has 8 blocks ( 32 weights per block) | w = func(superblock_scale, importance_matrix) | llama.cpp PR: SOTA 3-bit quants #5196 |
IQ4_NL | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_IQ4_NL | GGML_TYPE_IQ4_NL | 4.5 | i-quantization | Superblocks has 16 blocks ( 16 weights per block) | w = [non linear mapping of quants to weights] | llama.cpp PR: IQ4_NL: 4-bit non-linear quants with blocks of 32 #5590 |
IQ4_XS | GGML_FTYPE_MOSTLY_IQ4_XS | GGML_TYPE_IQ4_XS | 4.25 | i-quantization | Superblocks has 8 blocks ( 32 weights per block) | w = func(superblock_scale, importance_matrix) | llama.cpp PR: IQ4_XS: a 4.25 bpw quantization #5747 |
- All superblocks have fp16 scaling factor and contains up to 256 weights. Number of weights in a block must be divisible by 256. (To be confirmed)
Where to find the structure of these tensors in the code?
You would find it all usually in ggml-common.h
where it typically be of this form
Blocks
#define QK4_0 32
typedef struct {
ggml_half d; // delta
uint8_t qs[QK4_0 / 2]; // nibbles / quants
} block_q4_0;
static_assert(sizeof(block_q4_0) == sizeof(ggml_half) + QK4_0 / 2, "wrong q4_0 block size/padding");
Superblocks
//
// Super-block quantization structures
//
// 2-bit quantization
// weight is represented as x = a * q + b
// 16 blocks of 16 elements each
// Effectively 2.625 bits per weight
typedef struct {
uint8_t scales[QK_K/16]; // scales and mins, quantized with 4 bits
uint8_t qs[QK_K/4]; // quants
union {
struct {
ggml_half d; // super-block scale for quantized scales
ggml_half dmin; // super-block scale for quantized mins
} GGML_COMMON_AGGR;
ggml_half2 dm;
};
} block_q2_K;
static_assert(sizeof(block_q2_K) == 2*sizeof(ggml_half) + QK_K/16 + QK_K/4, "wrong q2_K block size/padding");
How are these tensors packed?
This is as explained by compilade in this thread.
Regarding how to find the bit pattern structure of a packed tensor block in the gguf file... there isn't a consistent encoding scheme for each block as sometimes a single field in the structs stores multiple types of values, like in Q4_K
where block_q4_K.scales
stores 6-bit scales and mins in some pattern. The easiest way to understand what the bits mean is to have a look at the respective dequantize_row
function of each type.
block_q4_K.scales packing example
The 12 bytes in Q4_K .scales
are packed a bit like this, where the uppercased letters are bits for the scales and lowercased letters are the bits of the mins as seen below, which corresponds to this function as shown here:
0: EEAAAAAA
1: FFBBBBBB
2: GGCCCCCC
3: HHDDDDDD
4: eeaaaaaa
5: ffbbbbbb
6: ggcccccc
7: hhdddddd
8: eeeeEEEE
9: ffffFFFF
10: ggggGGGG
11: hhhhHHHH
Note that this is packing a 6bit scale and mins but split across multiple bytes. This use of byte offsets and bitwise operations is likely done to be more friendlier for SIMD processing. As compilade noted, he believes that the indexing is only done at the byte level, hence the packing and unpacking of the 6-bit values in this block will require bitwise operations. In his anecdotal experience he also noticed that when making the vec_dot of Q1_3, that shuffles are surprisingly as fast as additions in SIMD.
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