# ADR-0063: `tl.scratch_scope` — per-tile scratch recycling for long context

## Status

Proposed

> Supporting ADR for **ADR-0060** (AHBM GQA Fused Attention). Long-context
> attention sweeps many K/V tiles; each tile's intermediates
> (`scores`, `P`, `exp`, partial `O`, …) currently allocate fresh
> scratch that is never freed within a kernel invocation. The 1 MiB
> per-PE scratch budget is exhausted long before a realistic context
> length.

## Context

### The bump allocator

`TLContext` allocates every math/compute output handle from a per-PE
scratch pool with a **linear bump cursor**
(`src/kernbench/triton_emu/tl_context.py`; `_scratch_alloc`):

```python
def _scratch_alloc(self, nbytes):
    aligned = (nbytes + 15) & ~15
    addr = self._scratch_base + self._scratch_cursor
    self._scratch_cursor += aligned
    if self._scratch_cursor > self._scratch_size:      # default 1 << 20 = 1 MiB
        raise RuntimeError("TLContext scratch overflow: ...")
    return addr
```

The docstring states the cursor **"resets on every kernel invocation"** —
i.e. only at kernel entry, never *within* the kernel body. Every
`tl.dot`, `tl.softmax`, `tl.exp`, `tl.sum`, `a - b`, `a * b`, … grabs a
fresh slice and nothing is reclaimed until the kernel returns.

### Why this bites the GQA kernel

The current milestone bench keeps `S_q = S_kv_per_rank = 16` **explicitly
because** of this limit
(`tests/attention/test_milestone_gqa_llama70b.py:123-148`):

> "S_q_prefill and S_kv_per_rank are deliberately small (16 each) so the
> simulator's 1 MB per-PE TCM kernel scratch is not exhausted by the
> bump-allocated handle outputs of softmax/exp/dot/sum chains over
> n_ranks ring steps."

A FlashAttention sweep over `n_tiles` tiles allocates O(`n_tiles` ×
per-tile-intermediates). For any realistic context this overflows. The
*math* of flash attention needs only **O(1)** live scratch — the running
`(m, l, O)` plus the current tile's working set — because each tile's
temporaries are dead once that tile is folded into the running state. The
allocator just doesn't know they're dead.

## Decision

Add a **scratch scope** that lets a kernel mark a region of allocations
as reclaimable, so per-tile temporaries are recycled while live running
state (and in-flight prefetch buffers) are preserved.

### D1. `tl` surface — context manager

```python
with tl.scratch_scope():
    s   = tl.dot(q, k_t)        # all handles allocated inside the `with`
    p   = tl.softmax(s)         # share a region that is rewound on exit
    o_j = tl.dot(p, v)
    # ... fold o_j into running (m,l,O) which live OUTSIDE the scope ...
# on __exit__: cursor rewinds to its value at __enter__
```

Semantics:
- `__enter__` records the current `_scratch_cursor` as a save-point.
- `__exit__` restores the cursor to the save-point, freeing everything
  allocated inside.
- Handles allocated **outside** the scope (running `m,l,O`, prefetch
  buffers held by `LoadFuture` from ADR-0062) keep their addresses —
  they were allocated before the save-point or in an enclosing scope.

### D2. Safety contract

A handle allocated inside a scope **must not** be read after the scope
exits — its bytes may be overwritten by the next scope's allocations.
The flash loop respects this naturally: the only values that survive a
tile iteration are the running accumulators, which are allocated outside
the per-tile scope and updated by ops *inside* it writing to outside
addresses (the merge writes new running state — see D3).

### D3. Interaction with running accumulators

The online-softmax merge reads the old running `(m, l, O)` and the
current tile's `(m_j, l_j, O_j)`, producing new running values. To keep
the new running values outside the recycled region, the merge writes them
to **stable scratch** allocated once before the loop (a small fixed
"running-state" arena, distinct from the per-tile scope). Concretely the
kernel keeps two arenas:

- **persistent arena** (allocated once): `m, l, O` (and their
  double-buffer if needed for the merge).
- **scoped arena** (rewound each tile): `scores, P, exp, O_j, scale_*`.

This mirrors how real flash-attention SRAM budgeting works: a small
persistent accumulator region + a recycled tile working set.

### D4. Nesting

Scopes nest (stack of save-points). Inner scope exit rewinds to the inner
save-point; outer exit rewinds further. This supports an outer
"per-query-block" scope around an inner "per-KV-tile" scope for prefill.

## Alternatives

### A1. Round-trip temporaries through HBM

Store intermediates to HBM and reload to "free" TCM scratch. Rejected:
turns a TCM-resident streaming kernel into an HBM-bandwidth-bound one —
the opposite of the goal, and it pollutes op_log with spurious DMA.

### A2. Tiled `tl.composite` (scheduler-managed scratch)

`tl.composite` recycles per-tile scratch inside PE_SCHEDULER
automatically. As in ADR-0062 A1, this is attractive but blocked on a
flash-capable composite kind (two GEMMs + carried `(m,l,O)`), a much
larger change. `scratch_scope` gives the same memory behaviour for the
greenlet kernel with a tiny, general primitive. The two can coexist.

### A3. Grow the scratch budget

Bump `pe_tcm.kernel_scratch_mb`. Rejected as a fix: it only pushes the
context-length ceiling out linearly while still leaking O(`n_tiles`)
scratch, and it misrepresents the hardware (real TCM is small; the point
of flash attention is O(1) working set). Useful only as a coarse knob,
not a substitute for recycling.

## Consequences

### Positive
- Removes the artificial `S = 16` validation-scale ceiling; enables
  realistic context lengths in both timing and data modes.
- Faithfully models flash attention's O(1) working-set property.
- Small, general primitive (any tiled kernel benefits).

### Negative
- A use-after-scope bug silently reads stale bytes. Mitigated by the D2
  contract, by keeping the scope discipline inside a shared attention
  helper, and (optionally) by a debug build that poisons rewound regions.
- Must coordinate with ADR-0062: prefetch buffers are live across tile
  iterations, so they belong to the persistent arena, not the scoped one.

## Test Requirements

1. **Recycling**: a loop of `N` tiles inside `tl.scratch_scope()` keeps
   peak `_scratch_cursor` bounded by one tile's footprint, independent of
   `N` (today it grows linearly and overflows).
2. **Correctness**: a flash sweep with scopes produces the same `O` as
   the same sweep without scopes at a small `N` that fits without
   recycling (Phase 2).
3. **Long context**: a sweep at an `N` that would overflow 1 MiB without
   scopes completes (the exact failure the `S=16` cap avoids today).
4. **Persistent-vs-scoped isolation**: running `(m,l,O)` allocated
   outside the scope retains correct values across `__exit__`.
5. **Nesting**: nested scopes rewind to the correct save-points.