Files
kernbench2/docs/adr/ADR-0010-api-cli-surface-and-semantics.md
T
ywkang 049e3d8bb3 benches: package as kernbench.benches, add @bench registry + list subcommand
Move benches/ -> src/kernbench/benches/ and src/kernbench/cli/probe.py ->
src/kernbench/probes/probe.py. Each bench self-registers via
@bench(name=..., description=...); kernbench list enumerates benches
with auto-assigned indices, --bench accepts kebab-case name or numeric
index. Audit at package-import time fails if any non-underscore module
forgets the decorator. ADR-0010 (EN + KO) updated to reflect the new
resolver path, list subcommand, and probes package separation.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-05-20 14:42:10 -07:00

5.2 KiB

ADR-0010: Command Line Interface and Execution Semantics

Status

Accepted

Context

The kernbench CLI is the user-facing entry point of the simulator. It exposes four subcommands:

  • run — execute a benchmark against a topology.
  • list — enumerate registered benches.
  • probe — diagnostic utility for latency / BW measurement.
  • web — interactive topology viewer.

Device enumeration is centralized in the CLI; neither the runtime API nor the simulation engine enumerates devices. Benchmarks remain single-device by design and accept a device identifier as input.

Decision

D1. Benchmark contract — single-device by design

  • A benchmark MUST define behavior for a single device only.
  • A benchmark MUST accept a device identifier as input.
  • Benchmarks MUST NOT enumerate or loop over multiple devices.

Multi-device execution is the CLI's concern (D3), not the benchmark's.

D2. kernbench run — benchmark execution

Required arguments:

  • --topology <path>: topology YAML file path. Loaded via resolve_topology().
  • --bench <identifier>: benchmark identifier. Resolved via kernbench.benches.registry.resolve(), which accepts either the registered kebab-case name (e.g., gemm-single-pe) or a numeric index from kernbench list.

Optional arguments:

  • --device <selector> (default: all):
    • all — run once per discovered SIP (see D3).
    • sip:<N> — run only on SIP N.
    • Parsed via resolve_device().
  • --verify-data (default: off) — enable Phase 2 data verification (see ADR-0020). When set, engine_factory constructs the engine with enable_data=True. After the benchmark runs, a diagnostic summary of recorded ops is printed.

Each invocation runs the benchmark once within a single simulation instance.

D3. Multi-device execution is logically parallel

When --device all (or omitted) and the topology has multiple SIPs:

  • Benchmark executions are submitted to a single simulation engine instance.
  • Executions are logically parallel in simulation time.
  • Inter-device contention is naturally modeled (shared fabric bandwidth, cross-SIP traffic, etc.).

The CLI does NOT spawn multiple OS processes or independent simulation runs — parallelism is internal to one simulation instance.

D4. kernbench list — enumerate registered benches

No arguments. Prints each registered bench's auto-assigned index, registered name, and one-line description.

Benches register themselves via the @bench(name=..., description=...) decorator (kernbench.benches.registry). Every non-underscore module under kernbench.benches/ MUST register at least one bench; a missing decorator raises RuntimeError at package import time.

Indices are assigned alphabetically by name at import time. They are a CLI convenience (shorthand for --bench), not a stable API — a new bench inserted alphabetically will shift later indices.

D5. kernbench probe — latency / BW diagnostic utility

Required argument:

  • --topology <path>: topology YAML file path.

Optional argument:

  • --case <name> (default: all) — run a predefined traffic pattern, or all to run every defined case.

Probe runs each pattern through the simulation engine and reports per case:

  • End-to-end latency (ns).
  • Effective bandwidth (nbytes / total_ns).
  • Bottleneck bandwidth (min edge BW along the chosen path).
  • Utilization (effective / bottleneck).

Probe additionally validates monotonicity invariants — for example that local-HBM access ≤ cross-PE-within-cube ≤ cross-cube ≤ cross-SIP — and reports violations. Probe is a developer tool for verifying the latency / BW model; it is not a benchmark.

D6. kernbench web — topology viewer

Optional arguments:

  • --port <N> (default: 8765) — HTTP port.
  • --no-open — do not auto-open the browser.

Launches a local HTTP server that renders the compiled topology in the browser. Distinct from the static docs/diagrams/ artifacts:

  • docs/diagrams/ files are derived at topology-compile time (ADR-0006).
  • kernbench web is interactive — pan/zoom, hover for component attributes, switch between SIP / CUBE / PE views.

D7. Runtime API and simulation engine remain device-scoped

  • Runtime API calls operate on one device per invocation.
  • The simulation engine schedules all requests deterministically.
  • Neither layer enumerates devices.

This invariant keeps each layer testable in isolation; device enumeration and multi-device fan-out live only in the CLI's run command (D3).

The probe implementation lives under kernbench.probes (separate from kernbench.benches), reflecting that probes are diagnostic utilities, not registered benches.

Consequences

  • Benchmark authors write single-device logic; multi-device behavior emerges from the CLI dispatching across SIPs.
  • Adding a new subcommand (e.g., trace export, replay) does not require benchmark or runtime-API changes — the CLI is the extension point.
  • probe and web are diagnostic / visualization tools, not benchmarks; they bypass the benchmark loader path.
  • SPEC R7, R8, R9
  • ADR-0007 (Runtime API and Simulation Engine Boundaries)
  • ADR-0020 (Two-pass data execution — --verify-data)
  • ADR-0006 (Topology compilation and diagram generation — background for kernbench web)