This PR cleans up the python API to make things more consistent
with existing python array api and torch.
Device update
- device_id => index, to be consistent with torch
- device_type => dlpack_device_type() returns int
- added type property same as torch.device
API updates:
- Move the convenient method like cpu() out into tvm runtime to keep device minimal
- tvm_ffi._init_api => tvm_ffi.init_ffi_api
- tvm_ffi.register_func => tvm_ffi.register_global_func
* [FFI][REFACTOR] Establish tvm_ffi as a standalone python module
This PR establishes tvm_ffi as a standalone python module.
The ffi is structured as a minimal pip module that can be
directly install by path or url.
examples/get_started provided a minimal example.
This is a major change as we are decoupling tvm_ffi as a
separate package, users need to install tvm_ffi separately.
Thanks to its minimal dependency, tvm_ffi can be easily installed
even just from the source by pip install ./ffi
This change would enable future improvement for library plugins
to have lightweight dependencies by just working on top of
the tvm_ffi, while the main compiler toolchain and runtime
can be layered on top.
* [FFI] Improve traceback setups
This PR improves traceback related setups
This PR phases out tvm._ffi redirections in favor of new FFI
new functions are now called via tvm.ffi.
We also enabled limited API support for python 3.12+
so the compiled binary can be forward compatible to future
python versions.
Unlike ctypes, Cython by default do not release GIL when
calling into C API functions. This causes problems when the
function is long running. As the particular calling thread will
block other python threads by holding the GIL.
This PR explicitly releases GIL when calling into possible
long running functions. It fixes the timeout issue in
PopenPool which previously relied on another python thread
for timeout.
Added a regression test-case by changing sleep to sleep
in FFI, which previously will indefinitely block the popen tests.
Tianqi Chen