refactor: extract extensible shared smoothing engine by changwangss · Pull Request #2452 · intel/auto-round

changwangss · 2026-10-08T13:55:10Z

Description

AWQ and SVDQuant maintain separate smoothing workflows. Extract an algorithm-independent SmoothEngine, SmoothGroup, and structural SmoothStrategy interface, and route both algorithms through the shared engine. New algorithms supply preparation, candidates, scoring, application, and cleanup without adding algorithm branches to the engine.

Preserve AWQ's activation/weight means, ratio/duo grid, QDQ loss, folding, and clipping synchronization; preserve SVDQuant's absmax statistics, Alpha/Beta grid, deployed-scale precision, and low-rank-aware scoring. Keep smoothing optional for SVDQuant and retain its search-all-groups-before-installation order. Existing configuration and SVDQuant smooth imports remain available.

Both algorithms now keep the first exact tie and share numerical-invalid candidate handling, logging, trial-state restoration, and cleanup. Execution errors, including OOM, propagate. AWQ retains its no-valid-candidate skip fallback; SVDQuant retains its error behavior. Joint AWQ + SVDQuant execution and broader model support remain follow-up work.

Type of Change

Refactor

Related Issues

Closes #2451

Validation

78 focused tests passed: 55 smoothing/strategy/SVDQuant pipeline tests and 23 existing AWQ replay/mapping and MXFP4/W4A16/Nunchaku compatibility tests.
Runs used PYTEST_DISABLE_PLUGIN_AUTOLOAD=1 and --noconftest to isolate self-contained tests; this is not a full repository test run.
All pre-commit checks passed for changed files.
Static comparison confirms extracted AWQ candidate/scoring closures and SVDQuant scoring preserve the original code apart from owner naming.

Checklist Before Submitting

My code has been tested locally.
Documentation has been updated as needed.
New or updated tests are included where applicable.
The CUDA CI has passed.

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

Copilot

🔵 Needs a closer look

Three moderate issues remain in shared search and hook cleanup, along with a requested SVDQuant regression test.

No open issues 🎉

What changed in this PR

This refactor extracts a shared smoothing engine for AWQ and SVDQuant while preserving algorithm-specific behavior.

Changes:

Adds shared smoothing groups, strategies, calibration, replay, search, and error handling.
Migrates AWQ and SVDQuant workflows to the shared engine.
Adds compatibility tests and synchronized documentation.

File	Summary	Review notes
`test/unit/common/algorithms/test_svdquant.py`	SVDQuant compatibility tests	Reviewed
`test/unit/common/algorithms/test_svdquant_smooth.py`	SVDQuant smoothing tests	Reviewed
`test/unit/common/algorithms/test_svdquant_residual.py`	Residual tie behavior tests	Reviewed
`test/unit/common/algorithms/test_smoothing.py`	Shared smoothing utility tests	Reviewed
`test/unit/common/algorithms/test_smoothing_engine.py`	Extensible engine tests	Reviewed
`test/unit/common/algorithms/test_smoothing_awq_compatibility.py`	AWQ compatibility tests	Reviewed
`docs/svdquant_details.md`	English SVDQuant documentation	Reviewed
`docs/svdquant_details_CN.md`	Chinese SVDQuant documentation	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/svdquant/smooth.py`	SVDQuant strategy and compatibility exports	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/svdquant/smooth_adapters/base.py`	Shared group representation for SVDQuant	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/svdquant/residual.py`	Residual tie preservation	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/svdquant/apply.py`	Shared SVDQuant search and application	Nit (1): add a multi-group partial-installation regression test
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/smoothing/search.py`	Shared candidate search	Moderate (1): support `None` candidates; retain the selected error alongside the candidate
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/smoothing/scale.py`	Shared scale utilities	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/smoothing/replay.py`	Hook replay and cleanup	Moderate (1): roll back partially installed hooks when registration fails
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/smoothing/groups.py`	Shared smoothing groups	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/smoothing/errors.py`	Shared smoothing errors	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/smoothing/engine.py`	Shared smoothing engine	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/smoothing/calibration.py`	Shared calibration utilities	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/smoothing/__init__.py`	Shared smoothing exports	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/awq/smooth.py`	AWQ smoothing strategy	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/transforms/awq/base.py`	AWQ engine integration	Reviewed
`auto_round/algorithms/composer.py`	Hook and failure cleanup	Reviewed

_{Review effort: Lite}

AutoRoundBot · 2026-10-21T09:14:12Z

/azp run Unit-Test-CUDA-AutoRound

azure-pipelines · 2026-10-21T09:14:22Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

AutoRoundBot · 2026-10-21T10:03:38Z

/azp run Unit-Test-CUDA-AutoRound

azure-pipelines · 2026-10-21T10:03:48Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

changwangss · 2026-10-22T11:01:11Z

base 9920194
model: Qwen3-8B

Scheme	GSM8K (%)	HellaSwag (%)	MMLU (%)	PIQA (%)	WinoGrande (%)	AVG (%)
W4A16	87.41	56.03	72.18	76.66	69.61	72.38
MXFP4	85.14	54.07	69.55	75.08	68.98	70.56

from the awq details doc

Scheme	GSM8K (%)	HellaSwag (%)	MMLU (%)	PIQA (%)	WinoGrande (%)	AVG (%)
W4A16	86.50	56.07	72.23	76.55	69.14	72.10
MXFP4	83.70	53.89	69.54	75.57	68.19	70.18

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

Copilot

🟡 Changes recommended

AWQ parent-forward scoring can leave trial weights installed when candidate evaluation raises, causing corrupted model state.

1 open issue

Restore temporary weights when parent-forward scoring fails · New

_{Review effort: Lite}

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

Copilot

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Copilot review overview

4 open issues

Using object identity (is) to validate that a SmoothResult matches a SmoothGroup is brittle:… · New
output_squared_error() documents a 'FP64 CPU accumulator' but does not enforce that accumulator… · New
The comment says this loop preserves the 'pre-extraction' search as a reference, but the selection… · New
The comment says this loop preserves the 'pre-extraction' search as a reference, but the selection… · New

1 resolved since last review

Restore temporary weights when parent-forward scoring fails

_{Review effort: Lite}

AutoRoundBot · 2026-10-22T12:23:17Z

/azp run Unit-Test-CUDA-AutoRound

azure-pipelines · 2026-10-22T12:23:27Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

AutoRoundBot · 2026-10-22T13:17:20Z

/azp run Unit-Test-CUDA-AutoRound

azure-pipelines · 2026-10-22T13:17:32Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

changwangss force-pushed the refactor/shared-smoothing branch from aac0d02 to 8e5e924 Compare October 8, 2026 14:05

refactor: extract extensible shared smoothing engine

7d58d64

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

changwangss force-pushed the refactor/shared-smoothing branch from 8e5e924 to 7d58d64 Compare October 20, 2026 07:30

changwangss added 3 commits October 20, 2026 01:23

fix: combine nested evaluation test contexts for Ruff

de26e98

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

refactor: centralize AWQ failure cleanup and simplify smoothing tests

ec6dde4

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

Merge branch 'main' into refactor/shared-smoothing

daf1726

changwangss marked this pull request as ready for review October 21, 2026 08:41

Copilot AI lite review requested due to automatic review settings October 21, 2026 08:41

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of changwangss October 21, 2026 08:41

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Copilot AI reviewed Oct 21, 2026

View reviewed changes

fix: handle smoothing search and hook registration edge cases

9920194

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

changwangss added 3 commits October 22, 2026 04:04

merge: resolve composer conflict with main

5a3d98c

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

refactor: narrow shared smoothing changes to refactoring

ccad102

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

refactor: preserve existing calibration and AWQ failure behavior

809e24a

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

changwangss requested a lite review from Copilot October 22, 2026 11:23

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of changwangss October 22, 2026 11:23

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Copilot AI reviewed Oct 22, 2026

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Comment thread auto_round/algorithms/transforms/awq/smooth.py

changwangss added 2 commits October 22, 2026 04:42

refactor: preserve AWQ search behavior and call structure

12db98d

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

test: simplify shared smoothing coverage

8dc36bb

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

changwangss requested a lite review from Copilot October 22, 2026 11:46

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of changwangss October 22, 2026 12:05

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Comment thread auto_round/algorithms/transforms/smoothing/engine.py

Comment thread auto_round/algorithms/transforms/smoothing/replay.py

Comment thread test/unit/common/algorithms/test_svdquant_smooth.py Outdated

Comment thread test/unit/common/algorithms/test_svdquant_smooth.py

docs: clarify smoothing interface contracts and test reference

9638896

Signed-off-by: changwangss <chang1.wang@intel.com>

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changwangss commented Oct 8, 2026

Description

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Validation

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