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+# Deferred: Vulkan sparse Flash Attention (Strix Halo)
+
+Written during the 2026-09-15 sync of `halo-box/llama.cpp` into this fork (PR #64).
+Upstream's sparse Flash Attention could not be merged mechanically and was deferred.
+This file says why, and what integrating it actually requires, so the next person does
+not have to rediscover it.
+
+Nothing below is a measurement.
+
+---
+
+## What is not in this fork
+
+`fc82583e6 vulkan: support sparse Flash Attention (ggml-org#28105)` is **not** here.
+`ggml/src/ggml-vulkan/` was reverted wholesale to the strix version during the sync.
+
+Deferred with it: `f1e44dcc1 vulkan: workaround NV queuesubmit driver bug
+(ggml-org#28830)`.
+
+## Why it could not be merged mechanically
+
+Upstream and strix collide on three things at once:
+
+| | strix | upstream #28105 |
+|---|---|---|
+| Spec-constant bit | `DYNAMIC_KV = (Flags & 16)` | `USE_SPARSE = (Flags & 16)` |
+| FA push constants | `m_row_len, gqa_ratio, split_k_num, output_k_num, partial_output` | `sparse_base` |
+| Sparse mechanism | gather/compaction family + DeepSeek-V4 split keyed on bit 31 of `gqa_ratio` | binding-7 index gather, `fa_kv_index()` |
+
+They are rival implementations of overlapping functionality on the same bit.
+
+Taking either side alone breaks the build. Upstream's sparse code merged *cleanly* into
+`flash_attn.comp`, `flash_attn_cm1.comp` and `flash_attn_cm2.comp` — strix had not
+touched those regions — so keeping strix's `flash_attn_base.glsl` leaves those three
+files calling an undefined `fa_kv_index()` / `USE_SPARSE` / `data_sparse`. Reverting the
+whole directory is the only self-consistent option without a GPU.
+
+## What integration actually requires
+
+1. Renumber one feature's `Flags` bit. Audit every `string_to_spv` call in
+   `vulkan-shaders-gen.cpp` and every `Flags` write in `ggml-vulkan.cpp` — the bit is set
+   on the C++ side and read in GLSL, with no shared header to keep the two honest.
+2. Merge the two push-constant structs and update the single C++ writer.
+   **A mismatched layout does not crash.** The shader reads whatever bytes sit at those
+   offsets and emits plausible-looking wrong tensors. Validate numerically, not by
+   "it ran".
+3. Decide whether `DYNAMIC_KV` and `USE_SPARSE` coexist or one supersedes. strix's gather
+   family (`flash_attn_gather{,_dq,_union,_union_dq}.comp`) may already cover upstream's
+   case, in which case the answer is to drop one.
+
+## How to settle it
+
+```sh
+cmake -B build-vk -DGGML_VULKAN=ON && cmake --build build-vk -j
+build-vk/bin/test-backend-ops -b Vulkan0 -o FLASH_ATTN_EXT        # correctness vs CPU ref
+build-vk/bin/test-backend-ops -b Vulkan0 perf -o FLASH_ATTN_EXT   # includes the strix probes
+```
+
+The strix probes already in `test-backend-ops.cpp` are the ones that matter here:
+MALL-spill (32 KV heads, K/V footprint 8x > 32MB MALL), L2-residence (1 KV head x GQA 32,
+K/V 5.2MB fits L2), and the KV-cache-layout probe (`{0, 2, 1, 3}`). They were written to
+distinguish cache-bandwidth-bound from issue-bound on this part. If upstream's sparse path
+is integrated, it must not regress them.
+
+Baseline, measured on a Radeon 8060S (RADV STRIX_HALO) at `dffbb7888`: FLASH_ATTN_EXT
+5339/5339 pass on Vulkan0.
+
+---
+
+## Provenance
+
+| Ref | What |
+|---|---|
+| `fc82583e6` | upstream sparse FA (ggml-org#28105) — deferred |
+| `f1e44dcc1` | upstream NV queuesubmit workaround (ggml-org#28830) — deferred |
+| `dced43c58` | the sync merge (PR #64) |
+| `82aed6017` | #63 merged into that sync |
+
+The PLE n-gram table's disk reader survived the sync as the backend of
+`--lazy-mode on-direct`; see PR #64's description for what changed and what was dropped
+(O_DIRECT reads and the `--ngram-*` tuning knobs).