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@Copilot Copilot AI commented Aug 4, 2025

This PR implements experimental LTO-IR (Link Time Optimization Intermediate Representation) support for cuDF's JIT compilation system to address the significant compilation time overhead identified in NVRTC profiling.

Problem

Current cuDF JIT compilation uses NVRTC to compile CUDA C++ code at runtime, with profiling showing that ~90% of compilation time is spent in the CUDA C++ frontend. This makes JIT compilation prohibitively expensive for latency-sensitive workloads with dynamic expressions.

Solution

This implementation adds LTO-IR support that:

  • Pre-compiles common operators to LTO-IR at build time
  • Links pre-compiled LTO-IR modules at runtime instead of compiling from CUDA C++
  • Falls back gracefully to traditional CUDA C++ compilation when needed
  • Provides comprehensive runtime configuration options

Key Features

Build System Integration

  • New CMake option CUDF_USE_LTO_IR=ON to enable LTO-IR support
  • Automatic addition of --device-lto flags for CUDA compilation
  • Framework for generating LTO-IR from existing CUDA kernels at build time

Runtime Infrastructure

  • LTO-IR Cache: Manages pre-compiled operators with dependency resolution
  • Configuration System: Environment variable control (CUDF_JIT_COMPILATION_MODE, CUDF_JIT_AGGRESSIVE_DETECTION)
  • Automatic Fallback: Seamless fallback to CUDA C++ when LTO-IR unavailable
  • Operator Detection: Heuristic-based detection of operators from CUDA/PTX source

Integration Points

  • Modified transform operations (src/transform/transform.cpp)
  • Modified binary operations (src/binaryop/binaryop.cpp)
  • Minimal changes to existing JIT workflow

Usage

# Build with LTO-IR support
./build.sh libcudf --cmake-args="-DCUDF_USE_LTO_IR=ON"

# Configure runtime behavior
export CUDF_JIT_COMPILATION_MODE=prefer_lto_ir  # Try LTO-IR first, fallback to CUDA
export CUDF_JIT_COMPILATION_MODE=lto_ir_only    # Force LTO-IR only (for testing)
export CUDF_JIT_COMPILATION_MODE=cuda_only      # Disable LTO-IR completely

Current Status

This PR provides a complete foundation with:

  • ✅ Full infrastructure and runtime configuration
  • ✅ Integration in transform and binary operations
  • ✅ Comprehensive test suite and documentation
  • ⚠️ Placeholder LTO-IR linking (pending jitify2 support or CUDA driver API implementation)
  • ⚠️ Framework for LTO-IR generation (actual data generation is future work)

Performance Impact

When fully implemented, this is expected to provide:

  • Significant reduction in JIT compilation time (avoiding CUDA C++ frontend overhead)
  • Better caching and operator fusion opportunities
  • Lower memory usage during compilation
  • Maintained compatibility with existing code

Future Work

  1. Complete LTO-IR linking implementation (jitify2 integration or CUDA driver API)
  2. Build-time generation of actual LTO-IR data from CUDA kernels
  3. More sophisticated operator detection and parsing
  4. Performance validation and benchmarking
  5. Integration with upcoming Row-IR system

The infrastructure is designed to be forward-compatible and provides immediate value through improved organization of JIT compilation logic and comprehensive fallback mechanisms.

Fixes #19578.


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copy-pr-bot bot commented Aug 4, 2025

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@lamarrr lamarrr closed this Aug 4, 2025
@Copilot Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] [FEA] Evaluate LTO-IR for JIT-Compilation [FEA] Add LTO-IR infrastructure for JIT compilation to reduce compilation time Aug 4, 2025
@Copilot Copilot AI requested a review from lamarrr August 4, 2025 16:16
Copilot finished work on behalf of lamarrr August 4, 2025 16:16
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[FEA] Evaluate LTO-IR for JIT-Compilation
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