ATOM (atom-ai): code snapshot (100fae0 + batched-train), README with measured numbers, curated checkpoints
9f1076a verified | # CPU performance helpers (serialize + prefetch) | |
| Lightweight box hygiene for ATOM training. **No science changes** — same | |
| packets, same field, same loss. These knobs only reduce accidental CPU | |
| contention and hide shard I/O latency. | |
| ## 1. Serialize trains (default ON) | |
| Two `tools/run_atom_native.py` processes on one machine will thrash the same | |
| CPU cores. By default the runner takes an **advisory exclusive flock** and | |
| **fails fast** if another train already holds it (no infinite wait; does not | |
| touch the other process). | |
| | Item | Value | | |
| |------|--------| | |
| | Default lock path | `checkpoints/atom-ai-train.lock` (cwd-relative) | | |
| | Fallback | `/tmp/atom-ai-train.lock` if `checkpoints/` cannot be created | | |
| | Opt out | `--allow-parallel-train` | | |
| | Override path | `--train-lock-path /path/to/lock` | | |
| On conflict the process prints the lock path and holder PID (when available) | |
| and exits non-zero. Lock is released on process exit. | |
| ## 2. Stream prefetch (default ON for `--stream`) | |
| In `src/io/stream_corpus.py`, `StreamingPacketSource` can read the **next** | |
| UTF-8-safe byte chunk on a background thread while the current chunk is | |
| atomized / trained. One-ahead buffer only; same concatenation order and | |
| bytes as without prefetch. | |
| | Item | Value | | |
| |------|--------| | |
| | Default | ON when `--stream` | | |
| | Disable | `--no-stream-prefetch` | | |
| | Semantics | Identical packet payloads / order; no field reset | | |
| ## What NOT to do | |
| These helpers are **not** a substitute for model or systems work you should | |
| avoid on the ATOM path: | |
| - **Do not** introduce DDP / multi-process data-parallel training as the | |
| “speed” fix — ATOM’s continuum is single-box structured matter, not a | |
| sharded parameter farm. | |
| - **Do not** add attention stacks or other architecture rewrites under the | |
| banner of CPU perf. | |
| - **Do not** wipe the toroidal field (or reset atomizer context) to “make | |
| steps cheaper” unless you explicitly want `--episode-reset` behaviour. | |
| - **Do not** change L_ign / MERGE / dynamics / loss / thresholds here — | |
| science stays elsewhere. | |
| Use serialize + prefetch first; profile before larger changes. | |