Finch.jl

Documentation	Build Status	Examples

Finch is a cutting-edge Julia-to-Julia compiler specially designed for optimizing loop nests over sparse or structured multidimensional arrays. Finch empowers users to write conventional for loops which are transformed behind-the-scenes into fast sparse code.

Key Features

• Ease of Writing: Maintain readable, dense loop structures in your code, and let Finch handle the complexities of sparse data manipulation.
• Smart Compilation: Finch’s compiler is intuitive and modular, applying optimizations such as constant propagation and term rewriting. Rules like x * 0 => 0 eliminate unnecessary computations in sparse code automatically.
• Wide Format Support: Seamlessly works with major sparse formats (CSC, CSF, COO, Hash, Bytemap, Dense Triangular) and unique structures like Run Length Encoding or user-defined background (zero) values.
• Enhanced Control Structures: Introduces flexibility in computations by supporting conditionals, multiple outputs, and even user-defined types and functions.

Comprehensive Sparse Formats

Finch supports a wide variety of array structure beyond sparsity. Whether you're dealing with custom background (zero) values, run-length encoding, or matrices with special structures like banded or triangular matrices, Finch’s compiler can understand and optimize various data patterns and computational rules to adapt to the structure of data.

Supported Syntax and Structures

Feature/Structure	Example Usage
Major Sparse Formats and Structured Arrays	A = Tensor(Dense(SparseList(Element(0.0)), 3, 4)
Background Values Other Than Zero	B = Tensor(SparseList(Element(1.0)), 9)
Broadcasts and Reductions	sum(A .* B)
User-Defined Functions	x[] <<min>>= y[i] + z[i]
Multiple Outputs	x[] <<min>>= y[i]; z[] <<max>>= y[i]
Multicore Parallelism	for i = parallel(1:100)
Conditionals	if dist[] < best_dist[]
Affine Indexing (e.g. Convolution)	A[i + j]

Why Finch.jl?

Faster Sparse Kernel Development:

Finch.jl helps you write sparse code for unusual or specific problems that don't have existing library solutions. Finch lets you outline a high-level plan and then compiles it into efficient code, making your task much easier.

Customizeable Array Formats:

Finch makes it easier to implement a new array type (e.g. blocked, padded, ragged, etc...). You can use the Finch tensor interface to describe the structure of the array, and Finch will take care of creating a full implementation. This includes functionalities like getindex, map, reduce, and more, all of which will work inside other Finch kernels.

Convenient Sparse Operations:

Finch is flexible and supports many convenient sparse array operations. The formats in Finch can adapt to many use cases, and it supports high-level commands like broadcast and reduce, as well as fused execution. By understanding how Finch generates implementations, you can get decent performance for a variety of problems.

Note: Finch is currently optimized for sparse code and does not implement traditional dense optimizations. We are currently adding these features, but if you need dense performance, you may want to look at JuliaGPU

Quick Start: Examples

Calculating Sparse Vector Statistics

Below is a Julia program using Finch to compute the minimum, maximum, sum, and variance of a sparse vector. This program efficiently reads the vector once, focusing only on nonzero values.

using Finch

X = Tensor(SparseList(Element(0.0)), fsprand(10, 0.5))
x_min = Scalar(Inf)
x_max = Scalar(-Inf)
x_sum = Scalar(0.0)
x_var = Scalar(0.0)

@finch begin
    for i = _
        let x = X[i]
            x_min[] <<min>>= x
            x_max[] <<max>>= x
            x_sum[] += x
            x_var[] += x * x
        end
    end
end;

Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication

As a more traditional example, what follows is a sparse matrix-vector multiplication using a column-major approach.

x = Tensor(Dense(Element(0.0)), rand(42));
A = Tensor(Dense(SparseList(Element(0.0))), fsprand(42, 42, 0.1));
y = Tensor(Dense(Element(0.0)));

@finch begin
    y .= 0
    for j=_, i=_
        y[i] += A[i, j] * x[j]
    end
end

Installation

At the Julia REPL, install the latest stable version by running:

julia> using Pkg; Pkg.add("Finch")

Learn More

Finch System

The following manuscript provides a good overview of the Finch System:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.16730

Looplets IR

At it's heart, Finch is powered by a new domain specific language for coiteration, breaking structured iterators into control flow units we call Looplets. Looplets are lowered progressively with several stages for rewriting and simplification. More on Looplets:

https://doi.org/10.1145/3579990.3580020 https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.05250