Bfloat with fp32 grad acc

megatron/arguments.py

@@ -129,11 +129,26 @@ def parse_args(extra_args_provider=None, defaults={},
     # Parameters dtype.
     args.params_dtype = torch.float
     if args.fp16:
+        assert not args.bf16
         args.params_dtype = torch.half
+    if args.bf16:
+        assert not args.fp16
+        args.params_dtype = torch.bfloat16
+        # No fusion is support for bfloat for now
+        assert not args.masked_softmax_fusion
+        assert not args.bias_gelu_fusion
+        assert not args.bias_dropout_fusion
+
     if args.rank == 0:
         print('using {} for parameters ...'.format(args.params_dtype),
               flush=True)
 
+    # If we do accumulation and all-reduces in fp32, we need to have
+    # local DDP and we should set the use-contiguous-buffers-in-ddp. 
+    if args.accumulate_allreduce_grads_in_fp32:
+        assert args.DDP_impl == 'local'
+        args.use_contiguous_buffers_in_ddp = True
+        
     if args.dataloader_type is None:
         args.dataloader_type = 'single'
 
@@ -204,8 +219,8 @@ def parse_args(extra_args_provider=None, defaults={},
     if args.fp16_lm_cross_entropy:
         assert args.fp16, 'lm cross entropy in fp16 only support in fp16 mode.'
     if args.fp32_residual_connection:
-        assert args.fp16, \
-            'residual connection in fp32 only supported when using fp16.'
+        assert args.fp16 or args.bf16, \
+            'residual connection in fp32 only supported when using fp16 or bf16.'
     # Activation checkpointing.
     if args.distribute_checkpointed_activations:
         assert args.checkpoint_activations, \
@@ -528,6 +543,8 @@ def _add_mixed_precision_args(parser):
 
     group.add_argument('--fp16', action='store_true',
                        help='Run model in fp16 mode.')
+    group.add_argument('--bf16', action='store_true',
+                       help='Run model in bfloat16 mode.')
     group.add_argument('--loss-scale', type=float, default=None,
                        help='Static loss scaling, positive power of 2 '
                        'values can improve fp16 convergence. If None, dynamic'
@@ -549,8 +566,9 @@ def _add_mixed_precision_args(parser):
                        help='Run attention masking and softmax in fp32. '
                        'This flag is ignored unless '
                        '--no-query-key-layer-scaling is specified.')
-    group.add_argument('--fp32-allreduce', action='store_true',
-                       help='All-reduce in fp32')
+    group.add_argument('--accumulate-allreduce-grads-in-fp32',
+                       action='store_true',
+                       help='Gradient accumulation and all-reduce in fp32.')
     group.add_argument('--fp16-lm-cross-entropy', action='store_true',
                        help='Move the cross entropy unreduced loss calculation'
                        'for lm head to fp16.')
@@ -577,6 +595,9 @@ def _add_distributed_args(parser):
                        choices=['local', 'torch'],
                        help='which DistributedDataParallel implementation '
                        'to use.')
+    group.add_argument('--use-contiguous-buffers-in-ddp', action='store_true',
+                       help='If set, use contiguous buffer in DDP. Note that '
+                       'this option only works woth local DDP.' )
     group.add_argument('--no-scatter-gather-tensors-in-pipeline', action='store_false',
                        help='Use scatter/gather to optimize communication of tensors in pipeline',
                        dest='scatter_gather_tensors_in_pipeline')

megatron/model/__init__.py

@@ -16,11 +16,13 @@
 _LAYER_NORM = None
 
 
-def import_layernorm(fp32_residual_connection):
+def import_layernorm(fp32_residual_connection, bf16):
 
     global _LAYER_NORM
     if not _LAYER_NORM:
-        if fp32_residual_connection:
+        if bf16:
+            from torch.nn import LayerNorm
+        elif fp32_residual_connection:
             from .fused_layer_norm import MixedFusedLayerNorm as LayerNorm
         else:
             from apex.normalization.fused_layer_norm import FusedLayerNorm as LayerNorm
@@ -39,6 +41,6 @@ from .gpt_model import (GPTModel,
                         GPTModelIntermediateStage,
                         GPTModelLastStage)
 from .language_model import get_language_model
-from .module import FP16Module
+from .module import Float16Module
 
 

megatron/model/bert_model.py

@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ class BertLMHead(MegatronModule):
         self.parallel_output = parallel_output
 
         self.dense = get_linear_layer(hidden_size, hidden_size, init_method)
-        LayerNorm = import_layernorm(args.fp32_residual_connection)
+        LayerNorm = import_layernorm(args.fp32_residual_connection, args.bf16)
         self.layernorm = LayerNorm(hidden_size, eps=layernorm_epsilon)
         self.gelu = torch.nn.functional.gelu
         if args.openai_gelu:

megatron/model/distributed.py

@@ -13,100 +13,206 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
+from abc import ABC
+from abc import abstractmethod
+
 import torch
 from torch._utils import _flatten_dense_tensors, _unflatten_dense_tensors
-import torch.distributed as dist
-from torch.nn.modules import Module
-from torch.autograd import Variable
 
+from megatron import get_args
 from megatron import mpu
 from .module import MegatronModule
 
 
-class DistributedDataParallel(MegatronModule):
 
-    def __init__(self, module):
-        super(DistributedDataParallel, self).__init__()
-        self.warn_on_half = True if dist._backend == dist.dist_backend.GLOO else False
+class MemoryBuffer:
+
+    def __init__(self, numel, dtype):
+        self.numel = numel
+        self.dtype = dtype
+        self.data = torch.zeros(self.numel,
+                                dtype=self.dtype,
+                                device=torch.cuda.current_device(),
+                                requires_grad=False)
+
+
+    def zero(self):
+        """Reset the buffer to zero."""
+        self.data.zero_()
+
+
+    def get(self, shape, start_index):
+        """Return a tensor with the input `shape` as a view into the
+        1-D data starting at `start_index`."""
+        end_index = start_index + shape.numel()
+        assert end_index <= self.numel, \
+            'requested tensor is out of the buffer range.'
+        buffer_tensor = self.data[start_index:end_index]
+        buffer_tensor = buffer_tensor.view(shape)
+        return buffer_tensor
+
+
 
+class DistributedDataParallelBase(MegatronModule, ABC):
+    """Abstract class for DDP."""
+
+    def __init__(self, module):
+        super(DistributedDataParallelBase, self).__init__()
+        # Keep a pointer to the model.
         self.module = module
-        self.data_parallel_group = mpu.get_data_parallel_group()
-
-        def allreduce_params(reduce_after=True, no_scale=False, fp32_allreduce=False):
-            if(self.needs_reduction):
-                self.needs_reduction = False
-                buckets = {}
-                for name, param in self.module.named_parameters():
-                    if param.requires_grad and param.grad is not None:
-                        tp = (param.data.type())
-                        if tp not in buckets:
-                            buckets[tp] = []
-                        buckets[tp].append(param)
-                if self.warn_on_half:
-                    if torch.cuda.HalfTensor in buckets:
-                        print("WARNING: gloo dist backend for half parameters may be extremely slow." +
-                              " It is recommended to use the NCCL backend in this case.")
-                        self.warn_on_half = False
-                for tp in buckets:
-                    bucket = buckets[tp]
-                    grads = [param.grad.data for param in bucket]
-                    coalesced = _flatten_dense_tensors(grads)
-                    if fp32_allreduce:
-                        coalesced = coalesced.float()
-                    if not no_scale and not reduce_after:
-                        coalesced /= dist.get_world_size(group=self.data_parallel_group)
-                    dist.all_reduce(coalesced, group=self.data_parallel_group)
-                    torch.cuda.synchronize()
-                    if not no_scale and reduce_after:
-                        coalesced /= dist.get_world_size(group=self.data_parallel_group)
-                    for buf, synced in zip(grads, _unflatten_dense_tensors(coalesced, grads)):
-                        buf.copy_(synced)
-        self.hook_handles = []
-        self.hooks = []
-        for param in list(self.module.parameters()):
-            def allreduce_hook(*unused):
-                Variable._execution_engine.queue_callback(allreduce_params)
-        #    handle = param.register_hook(allreduce_hook)
-            # self.hooks.append(allreduce_hook)
-            # self.hook_handles.append(handle)
-        self.allreduce_params = allreduce_params
+
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def allreduce_gradients(self):
+        pass
+
 
     def forward(self, *inputs, **kwargs):
-        self.needs_reduction = True
         return self.module(*inputs, **kwargs)
 
+
     def state_dict(self, destination=None, prefix='', keep_vars=False):
-        #[h.remove() for h in self.hook_handles]
-        sd = self.module.state_dict(destination, prefix, keep_vars)
-       # for handle, hook in zip(self.hook_handles, self.hooks):
-       #     d = handle.hooks_dict_ref()
-       #     d[handle.id] = hook
+        return self.module.state_dict(destination, prefix, keep_vars)
 
-        return sd
 
     def state_dict_for_save_checkpoint(self, destination=None, prefix='',
                                        keep_vars=False):
         return self.module.state_dict_for_save_checkpoint(destination, prefix,
                                                           keep_vars)
 
+
     def load_state_dict(self, state_dict, strict=True):
         self.module.load_state_dict(state_dict, strict=strict)
 
-    '''
-    def _sync_buffers(self):
-        buffers = list(self.module._all_buffers())
-        if len(buffers) > 0:
-            # cross-node buffer sync
-            flat_buffers = _flatten_dense_tensors(buffers)
-            dist.broadcast(flat_buffers, 0)
-            for buf, synced in zip(buffers, _unflatten_dense_tensors(flat_buffers, buffers)):
-                buf.copy_(synced)
-    def train(self, mode=True):
-        # Clear NCCL communicator and CUDA event cache of the default group ID,
-        # These cache will be recreated at the later call. This is currently a
-        # work-around for a potential NCCL deadlock.
-        if dist._backend == dist.dist_backend.NCCL:
-            dist._clear_group_cache()
-        super(DistributedDataParallel, self).train(mode)
-        self.module.train(mode)
-    '''
+
+
+class DistributedDataParallel(DistributedDataParallelBase):
+    """DDP with contiguous buffers options to storre and accumulate gradients.
+    This class:
+        - has the potential to reduce memory fragmentation.
+        - provides the option to do the gradient accumulation
+          in a type other than the params type (for example fp32)
+
+    Arguments:
+        module: input model.
+        accumulate_allreduce_grads_in_fp32: if true do the gradient accumulation
+            and the gradient all-reduce all in in float32. If this option is
+            true, we require `use_contiguous_buffers` to be true too.
+        use_contiguous_buffers: if true, use a contiguous buffer to store the
+            gradients.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, module,
+                 accumulate_allreduce_grads_in_fp32,
+                 use_contiguous_buffers):
+
+        super(DistributedDataParallel, self).__init__(module)
+
+        self.accumulate_allreduce_grads_in_fp32 \
+            = accumulate_allreduce_grads_in_fp32
+        self.use_contiguous_buffers = use_contiguous_buffers
+        # If we are using fp32-accumulate-allreduce explicitly
+        # this means we need main grads in a continous buffer.
+        if self.accumulate_allreduce_grads_in_fp32:
+            assert self.use_contiguous_buffers
+
+        # ===================================
+        # Rest of this part applies only to
+        # the case we use continuous buffers.
+        # ===================================
+        self._grad_buffers = None
+        if self.use_contiguous_buffers:
+            self._grad_buffers = {}
+
+            # Simple function to define buffer type.
+            def _get_buffer_type(param):
+                return torch.float if \
+                    self.accumulate_allreduce_grads_in_fp32 else param.dtype
+
+            # First calculate total number of elements per type.
+            type_num_elements = {}
+            for param in self.module.parameters():
+                if param.requires_grad:
+                    dtype = _get_buffer_type(param)
+                    type_num_elements[dtype] = type_num_elements.get(dtype, 0) \
+                                               + param.data.nelement()
+
+            # Allocate the buffer.
+            for dtype, num_elements in type_num_elements.items():
+                self._grad_buffers[dtype] = MemoryBuffer(num_elements, dtype)
+
+            # Assume the back prop order is reverse the params order,
+            # store the start index for the gradients.
+            for param in self.module.parameters():
+                if param.requires_grad:
+                    dtype = _get_buffer_type(param)
+                    type_num_elements[dtype] -= param.data.nelement()
+                    param.main_grad = self._grad_buffers[dtype].get(
+                        param.data.shape, type_num_elements[dtype])
+
+            # Backward hook.
+            # Accumalation function for the gradients. We need
+            # to store them so they don't go out of scope.
+            self.grad_accs = []
+            # Loop over all the parameters in the model.
+            for param in self.module.parameters():
+                if param.requires_grad:
+                    # Expand so we get access to grad_fn.
+                    param_tmp = param.expand_as(param)
+                    # Get the gradient accumulator functtion.
+                    grad_acc = param_tmp.grad_fn.next_functions[0][0]
+                    grad_acc.register_hook(self._make_param_hook(param))
+                    self.grad_accs.append(grad_acc)
+
+
+    def _make_param_hook(self, param):
+        """Create the all-reduce hook for backprop."""
+        # Hook used for back-prop.
+        def param_hook(*unused):
+            # Add the gradient to the buffer.
+            if param.grad.data is not None:
+                param.main_grad.add_(param.grad.data)
+                # Now we can deallocate grad memory.
+                param.grad = None
+        return param_hook
+
+
+    def zero_grad_buffer(self):
+        """Set the grad buffer data to zero. Needs to be called at the
+        begining of each iteration."""
+        assert self._grad_buffers is not None, 'buffers are not initialized.'
+        for _, buffer_ in self._grad_buffers.items():
+            buffer_.zero()
+
+
+    def allreduce_gradients(self):
+        """Reduce gradients across data parallel ranks."""
+        # If we have buffers, simply reduce the data in the buffer.
+        if self._grad_buffers is not None:
+            for _, buffer_ in self._grad_buffers.items():
+                buffer_.data /= mpu.get_data_parallel_world_size()
+                torch.distributed.all_reduce(
+                    buffer_.data, group=mpu.get_data_parallel_group())
+        else:
+            # Otherwise, bucketize and all-reduce
+            buckets = {}
+            # Pack the buckets.
+            for param in self.module.parameters():
+                if param.requires_grad and param.grad is not None:
+                    tp = param.data.type()
+                    if tp not in buckets:
+                        buckets[tp] = []
+                    buckets[tp].append(param)
+                    param.main_grad = param.grad
+
+            # For each bucket, all-reduce and copy all-reduced grads.
+            for tp in buckets:
+                bucket = buckets[tp]
+                grads = [param.grad.data for param in bucket]
+                coalesced = _flatten_dense_tensors(grads)
+                coalesced /= mpu.get_data_parallel_world_size()
+                torch.distributed.all_reduce(
+                    coalesced, group=mpu.get_data_parallel_group())
+                for buf, synced in zip(grads, _unflatten_dense_tensors(
+                        coalesced, grads)):
+                    buf.copy_(synced)

megatron/model/module.py

@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ from megatron import mpu
 
 _FLOAT_TYPES = (torch.FloatTensor, torch.cuda.FloatTensor)
 _HALF_TYPES = (torch.HalfTensor, torch.cuda.HalfTensor)
+_BF16_TYPES = (torch.BFloat16Tensor, torch.cuda.BFloat16Tensor)
 
 
 
@@ -109,6 +110,7 @@ class MegatronModule(torch.nn.Module):
                   "this needs to be handled manually. If you are training "
                   "something is definitely wrong.")
 
+
 def conversion_helper(val, conversion):
     """Apply conversion to val. Recursively apply conversion if `val`
     #is a nested tuple/list structure."""
@@ -120,44 +122,56 @@ def conversion_helper(val, conversion):
     return rtn
 
 
-def fp32_to_fp16(val):
-    """Convert fp32 `val` to fp16"""
+def fp32_to_float16(val, float16_convertor):
+    """Convert fp32 `val` to fp16/bf16"""
     def half_conversion(val):
         val_typecheck = val
         if isinstance(val_typecheck, (Parameter, Variable)):
             val_typecheck = val.data
         if isinstance(val_typecheck, _FLOAT_TYPES):
-            val = val.half()
+            val = float16_convertor(val)
         return val
     return conversion_helper(val, half_conversion)
 
 
-def fp16_to_fp32(val):
-    """Convert fp16 `val` to fp32"""
+def float16_to_fp32(val):
+    """Convert fp16/bf16 `val` to fp32"""
     def float_conversion(val):
         val_typecheck = val
         if isinstance(val_typecheck, (Parameter, Variable)):
             val_typecheck = val.data
-        if isinstance(val_typecheck, _HALF_TYPES):
+        if isinstance(val_typecheck, (_BF16_TYPES, _HALF_TYPES)):
             val = val.float()
         return val
     return conversion_helper(val, float_conversion)
 
 
 
-class FP16Module(MegatronModule):
+class Float16Module(MegatronModule):
+
+    def __init__(self, module, args):
+        super(Float16Module, self).__init__()
+
+        if args.fp16:
+            self.add_module('module', module.half())
+            def float16_convertor(val):
+                return val.half()
+        elif args.bf16:
+            self.add_module('module', module.bfloat16())
+            def float16_convertor(val):
+                return val.bfloat16()
+        else:
+            raise Exception('should not be here')
 
-    def __init__(self, module):
-        super(FP16Module, self).__init__()
-        self.add_module('module', module.half())
+        self.float16_convertor = float16_convertor
 
 
     def forward(self, *inputs, **kwargs):
         if mpu.is_pipeline_first_stage():
-            inputs = fp32_to_fp16(inputs)
+            inputs = fp32_to_float16(inputs, self.float16_convertor)
         outputs = self.module(*inputs, **kwargs)
         if mpu.is_pipeline_last_stage():
-            outputs = fp16_to_fp32(outputs)
+            outputs = float16_to_fp32(outputs)
         return outputs
 
 

megatron/model/transformer.py

@@ -397,8 +397,11 @@ class ParallelTransformerLayer(MegatronModule):
         self.apply_residual_connection_post_layernorm \
             = args.apply_residual_connection_post_layernorm
 
+        self.bf16 = args.bf16
+        self.fp32_residual_connection = args.fp32_residual_connection
+
         # Layernorm on the input data.
-        LayerNorm = import_layernorm(args.fp32_residual_connection)
+        LayerNorm = import_layernorm(self.fp32_residual_connection, self.bf16)
         self.input_layernorm = LayerNorm(
             args.hidden_size,
             eps=args.layernorm_epsilon)
@@ -440,6 +443,8 @@ class ParallelTransformerLayer(MegatronModule):
 
         # Layer norm at the beginning of the transformer layer.
         layernorm_output = self.input_layernorm(hidden_states)
+        if self.bf16 and self.fp32_residual_connection:
+            layernorm_output = layernorm_output.bfloat16()
         # Self attention.
         attention_output, attention_bias = \
             self.self_attention(layernorm_output,
@@ -478,6 +483,8 @@ class ParallelTransformerLayer(MegatronModule):
 
         # Layer norm post the self attention.
         layernorm_output = self.post_attention_layernorm(layernorm_input)
+        if self.bf16 and self.fp32_residual_connection:
+            layernorm_output = layernorm_output.bfloat16()
 
         if self.layer_type == LayerType.decoder:
             attention_output, attention_bias = \
@@ -500,6 +507,8 @@ class ParallelTransformerLayer(MegatronModule):
 
             # Layer norm post the decoder attention
             layernorm_output = self.post_inter_attention_layernorm(layernorm_input)
+            if self.bf16 and self.fp32_residual_connection:
+                layernorm_output = layernorm_output.bfloat16()
 
         # MLP.
         mlp_output, mlp_bias = self.mlp(layernorm_output)
@@ -533,6 +542,7 @@ class ParallelTransformer(MegatronModule):
         super(ParallelTransformer, self).__init__()
         args = get_args()
 
+        self.bf16 = args.bf16
         self.fp32_residual_connection = args.fp32_residual_connection
 
         # Store activation checkpoiting flag.
@@ -578,7 +588,8 @@ class ParallelTransformer(MegatronModule):
 
         if mpu.is_pipeline_last_stage():
             # Final layer norm before output.
-            LayerNorm = import_layernorm(args.fp32_residual_connection)
+            LayerNorm = import_layernorm(self.fp32_residual_connection,
+                                         self.bf16)
             self.final_layernorm = LayerNorm(
                 args.hidden_size,
                 eps=args.layernorm_epsilon)
@@ -665,6 +676,8 @@ class ParallelTransformer(MegatronModule):
             # Reverting data format change [s b h] --> [b s h].
             hidden_states = hidden_states.transpose(0, 1).contiguous()
             output = self.final_layernorm(hidden_states)
+            if self.bf16 and self.fp32_residual_connection:
+                output = output.bfloat16()
         else:
             output = hidden_states
         if get_key_value:

megatron/optimizer/__init__.py

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ from megatron import get_args
 from megatron.model import import_layernorm
 
 from .grad_scaler import ConstantGradScaler, DynamicGradScaler
-from .optimizer import FP16OptimizerWithFP16Params, FP32Optimizer
+from .optimizer import Float16OptimizerWithFloat16Params, FP32Optimizer
 
 
 def _get_params_for_weight_decay_optimization(modules):
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def _get_params_for_weight_decay_optimization(modules):
     Layernorms and baises will have no weight decay but the rest will.
     """
     args = get_args()
-    LayerNorm = import_layernorm(args.fp32_residual_connection)
+    LayerNorm = import_layernorm(args.fp32_residual_connection, args.bf16)
 
     weight_decay_params = {'params': []}
     no_weight_decay_params = {'params': [], 'weight_decay': 0.0}
@@ -67,24 +67,45 @@ def get_megatron_optimizer(model):
                         momentum=args.sgd_momentum)
     else:
         raise Exception('{} optimizer is not supported.'.format(
-                args.optimizer))
+            args.optimizer))
 
-    if args.fp16:
+    # Determine whether the params have main-grad field.
+    params_have_main_grad = False
+    if args.DDP_impl == 'local':
+        params_have_main_grad = True
+
+    if args.fp16 or args.bf16:
+
+        # Grad scaler:
+        #    if loss-scale is provided, instantiate the constant scaler.
+        #    if we are using fp16 and loss-scale is not present, use a
+        #       dynamic scaler.
+        #    otherwise we are running in bf16 with no loss-scale so
+        #       leave it as None.
+        grad_scaler = None
         # Constant loss scale.
         if args.loss_scale:
             grad_scaler = ConstantGradScaler(args.loss_scale)
         # Dynamic loss scale.
         else:
-            grad_scaler = DynamicGradScaler(
-                initial_scale=args.initial_loss_scale,
-                min_scale=args.min_loss_scale,
-                growth_factor=2.0,
-                backoff_factor=0.5,
-                growth_interval=args.loss_scale_window,
-                hysteresis=args.hysteresis)
+            if args.fp16:
+                grad_scaler = DynamicGradScaler(
+                    initial_scale=args.initial_loss_scale,
+                    min_scale=args.min_loss_scale,
+                    growth_factor=2.0,
+                    backoff_factor=0.5,
+                    growth_interval=args.loss_scale_window,
+                    hysteresis=args.hysteresis)
+
         # Megatron optimizer.
-        return FP16OptimizerWithFP16Params(optimizer, grad_scaler,
-                                           args.clip_grad, args.log_num_zeros_in_grad)
+        return Float16OptimizerWithFloat16Params(optimizer,
+                                                 args.clip_grad,
+                                                 args.log_num_zeros_in_grad,
+                                                 params_have_main_grad,
+                                                 args.bf16,
+                                                 grad_scaler)
 
     # FP32.
-    return FP32Optimizer(optimizer, args.clip_grad, args.log_num_zeros_in_grad)
+    return FP32Optimizer(optimizer, args.clip_grad,
+                         args.log_num_zeros_in_grad,
+                         params_have_main_grad)

megatron/training.py

@@ -37,9 +37,8 @@ from megatron import print_rank_0
 from megatron import print_rank_last
 from megatron.checkpointing import load_checkpoint
 from megatron.checkpointing import save_checkpoint
-from megatron.model import FP16Module
+from megatron.model import Float16Module
 from megatron.optimizer import get_megatron_optimizer
-
 from megatron.initialize import initialize_megatron
 from megatron.initialize import write_args_to_tensorboard
 from megatron.learning_rates import AnnealingLR
@@ -54,6 +53,7 @@ from megatron.schedules import forward_backward_pipelining_with_interleaving
 from megatron.utils import report_memory
 
 
+
 def print_datetime(string):
     """Note that this call will sync across all ranks."""
     torch.distributed.barrier()
@@ -222,8 +222,18 @@ def get_model(model_provider_func):
         model_module.cuda(torch.cuda.current_device())
 
     # Fp16 conversion.
-    if args.fp16:
-        model = [FP16Module(model_module) for model_module in model]
+    if args.fp16 or args.bf16:
+        model = [Float16Module(model_module, args) for model_module in model]
+        # For now, the layer norm does not support input float32 and outut bf16.
+        # For this, we move layernorm parameters to fp32 and cast output of the
+        # layernorm operation back to bf16.
+        if args.bf16 and args.fp32_residual_connection:
+            from megatron.model import import_layernorm
+            LayerNorm = import_layernorm(args.fp32_residual_connection, args.bf16)
+            for model_ in model:
+                for module_ in model_.modules():
+                    if isinstance(module_, LayerNorm):
+                        module_.float()
 
     if args.DDP_impl == 'torch':
         i = torch.cuda.current_device()
@@ -231,8 +241,12 @@ def get_model(model_provider_func):
                           process_group=mpu.get_data_parallel_group())
                  for model_module in model]
         return model
+    
     if args.DDP_impl == 'local':
-        model = [LocalDDP(model_module) for model_module in model]
+        model = [LocalDDP(model_module,
+                          args.accumulate_allreduce_grads_in_fp32,
+                          args.use_contiguous_buffers_in_ddp)
+                 for model_module in model]
         return model
 
     raise NotImplementedError('Unknown DDP implementation specified: {}. '
@@ -289,7 +303,7 @@ def setup_model_and_optimizer(model_provider_func):
     model = get_model(model_provider_func)
 
     unwrapped_model = unwrap_model(model,
-                                   (torchDDP, LocalDDP, FP16Module))
+                                   (torchDDP, LocalDDP, Float16Module))
     optimizer = get_megatron_optimizer(unwrapped_model)
 
     lr_scheduler = get_learning_rate_scheduler(optimizer)
@@ -308,9 +322,7 @@ def setup_model_and_optimizer(model_provider_func):
         args.iteration = 0
 
     # We only support local DDP with multiple micro-batches.
-    if len(model) > 1:
-        assert args.DDP_impl == 'local'
-    if mpu.get_pipeline_model_parallel_world_size() > 1:
+    if len(model) > 1 or mpu.get_pipeline_model_parallel_world_size() > 1:
         assert args.DDP_impl == 'local'
 
     # get model without FP16 and/or TorchDDP wrappers
@@ -331,7 +343,11 @@ def train_step(forward_step_func, data_iterator,
     timers = get_timers()
 
     # Set grad to zero.
-    optimizer.zero_grad()
+    if args.DDP_impl == 'local' and args.use_contiguous_buffers_in_ddp:
+        for partition in model:
+            partition.zero_grad_buffer()
+    else:
+        optimizer.zero_grad()
 
     if mpu.get_pipeline_model_parallel_world_size() > 1:
         if args.virtual_pipeline_model_parallel_size is not None:
@@ -351,8 +367,7 @@ def train_step(forward_step_func, data_iterator,
     if args.DDP_impl == 'local':
         timers('backward-params-all-reduce').start()
         for model_module in model:
-            model_module.allreduce_params(reduce_after=False,
-                                          fp32_allreduce=args.fp32_allreduce)
+            model_module.allreduce_gradients()
         timers('backward-params-all-reduce').stop()
 
     # All-reduce word_embeddings' grad across first and last stages to ensure
@@ -368,12 +383,15 @@ def train_step(forward_step_func, data_iterator,
         elif mpu.is_pipeline_last_stage(ignore_virtual=True):
             unwrapped_model = model[-1]
         unwrapped_model = unwrap_model(
-            unwrapped_model, (torchDDP, LocalDDP, FP16Module))
+            unwrapped_model, (torchDDP, LocalDDP, Float16Module))
 
         if unwrapped_model.share_word_embeddings:
             word_embeddings_weight = unwrapped_model.word_embeddings_weight()
-            torch.distributed.all_reduce(word_embeddings_weight.grad,
-                                         group=mpu.get_embedding_group())
+            if args.DDP_impl == 'local':
+                grad = word_embeddings_weight.main_grad
+            else:
+                grad = word_embeddings_weight.grad
+            torch.distributed.all_reduce(grad, group=mpu.get_embedding_group())
     timers('backward-embedding-all-reduce').stop()
 
     # Update parameters.

megatron/utils.py

@@ -48,13 +48,20 @@ def unwrap_model(model, module_instances=(torchDDP)):
 
 def calc_params_l2_norm(model):
     """Calculate l2 norm of parameters """
+    args = get_args()
+    if not isinstance(model, list):
+        model = [model]
     # Remove duplicate params.
     params_data = []
-    for param in model.parameters():
-        is_not_shared = param_is_not_shared(param)
-        is_not_tp_duplicate = param_is_not_tensor_parallel_duplicate(param)
-        if is_not_shared and is_not_tp_duplicate:
-            params_data.append(param.data)
+    for model_ in model:
+        for param in model_.parameters():
+            is_not_shared = param_is_not_shared(param)
+            is_not_tp_duplicate = param_is_not_tensor_parallel_duplicate(param)
+            if is_not_shared and is_not_tp_duplicate:
+                if args.bf16:
+                    params_data.append(param.data.float())
+                else:
+                    params_data.append(param.data)
     # Calculate norm
     dummy_overflow_buf = torch.cuda.IntTensor([0])
     norm, _ = multi_tensor_applier(