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fix(autocast): stream calibration batches instead of materializing all of them - #2553

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What does this PR do?

Type of change: Bug fix

ReferenceRunner.run() wraps the model with MARK_ALL, so every intermediate tensor becomes a graph output. It then called Comparator.run(), which executes every calibration sample up front and retains one full-graph activation dump per sample; those results were then copied a second time into all_batch_data before aggregation. Peak memory therefore grew linearly with the number of calibration samples — the OOM reported in #2337.

This uses Comparator's streaming mode and folds each batch into the running per-tensor statistics as it arrives, so peak memory is independent of the sample count. streaming is available in polygraphy>=0.53.4, which is already the floor in pyproject.toml, so no dependency change is needed.

Testing

Aggregated absmax/min_val/max_val were compared against an independent onnxruntime run that does not go through ReferenceRunner — exact match for N=2, 5 and 16. Dumping the full statistics before and after this change over N=1, 2, 7, 16 gives identical values and identical key sets, and the single-batch raw-array return is preserved.

Peak RSS on a model with ~14 MiB of activations per sample:

samples before after
1 8.2 MiB 8.1 MiB
8 128.4 MiB 24.2 MiB
32 448.5 MiB 32.3 MiB
64 897.4 MiB 23.5 MiB

tests/unit/onnx/autocast passes (232, including the new test; test_autocast.py needs torchvision, which is absent in my environment — it was already not collectable before this change). The new test asserts at most one batch is live at a time; reverting run() to accumulate-then-aggregate makes it fail with [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] while all other tests still pass.

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  • Is this change backward compatible?: ✅
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  • Did you write any new necessary tests?: ✅
  • Did you update Changelog?: ✅
  • Did you get Claude approval on this PR?: N/A

Additional Information

Fixes #2337. The first half of that issue was already fixed by #815; this addresses the second half, which @hychiang-git confirmed was still open.

Summary by CodeRabbit

  • Bug Fixes
    • ONNX calibration now processes samples as they arrive and aggregates tensor statistics incrementally, reducing memory use as calibration sets grow. Empty tensors contribute zero to minimum, maximum, and absolute maximum statistics; tensors missing from later batches are skipped.
  • Documentation
    • Updated the changelog with details of the ONNX AutoCast calibration memory-use fix.

…l of them

ReferenceRunner.run() wraps the model with MARK_ALL, so every intermediate
tensor becomes a graph output. It then called Comparator.run(), which executes
every calibration sample up front and retains one full-graph activation dump
per sample; those results were copied a second time into all_batch_data before
aggregation. Peak memory therefore grew linearly with the number of calibration
samples, making real (non-random) calibration data unusable past a few dozen
samples.

Use Comparator's streaming mode and fold each batch into the running per-tensor
statistics as it arrives, so peak memory is independent of the sample count.
Aggregated absmax/min/max values and the single-batch raw-array return are
unchanged.

Measured on a model with ~14 MiB of activations per sample:

    samples     before      after
          1     8.2 MiB    8.1 MiB
          8   128.4 MiB   24.2 MiB
         32   448.5 MiB   32.3 MiB
         64   897.4 MiB   23.5 MiB

Fixes NVIDIA#2337

Signed-off-by: SID <99672439+SID-6921@users.noreply.github.com>
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SID-6921 requested review from a team as code owners September 26, 2026 22:46
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Walkthrough

ReferenceRunner.run now processes Comparator results as each calibration batch arrives and updates per-tensor statistics. It returns raw data for one batch and aggregated statistics for multiple batches. A regression test checks batch processing and object lifetime.

Changes: AutoCast calibration streaming

Layer / File(s) Summary
Per-batch tensor statistics
modelopt/onnx/autocast/referencerunner.py
Helpers compute absolute maximum, minimum, and maximum values for each batch, then initialize or update running statistics. Empty tensors contribute zero values. Missing tensors in later batches are skipped.
Stream batches through ReferenceRunner
modelopt/onnx/autocast/referencerunner.py, tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py, CHANGELOG.rst
ReferenceRunner.run records each input feed and processes Comparator results in streaming mode. It returns raw data for one batch and aggregated statistics for multiple batches. The regression test checks that five batches are processed while at most one tracked batch and activation remain live. The changelog describes the streaming aggregation.

Priority: Normal

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant DataLoader
  participant FeedDictRecorder
  participant Comparator
  participant ReferenceRunner
  DataLoader->>FeedDictRecorder: Yield feed dictionary
  FeedDictRecorder->>ReferenceRunner: Record current feed
  Comparator->>ReferenceRunner: Yield batch result
  ReferenceRunner->>ReferenceRunner: Fold tensor statistics
Loading

Suggested reviewers: kevalmorabia97

Merge Risk: Minimal · previous review 50c5a

The streaming change has no unresolved actionable risk identified; proceed with normal checks.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name Status Explanation Resolution
Docstring Coverage Warning Docstring coverage is 50.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 14 functions across 2 files. Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.
✅ Passed checks (5 passed)
Check name Status Explanation
Description Check Passed Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check Passed The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: streaming calibration batches in AutoCast instead of materializing all batches in memory.
Linked Issues check Passed Issue #2337 requires aggregation across all calibration samples without memory growth linear to sample count. ReferenceRunner.run() now uses Comparator streaming, folds absmax, min_val, and `max…
Out of Scope Changes check Passed The changes to ReferenceRunner, its regression test, and the changelog directly support the memory and aggregation fix for issue #2337. No unrelated change appears in the reviewed pull request scope…
Security Anti-Patterns Passed PASS. The pull-request diff changes only modelopt/onnx/autocast/referencerunner.py, tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py, and CHANGELOG.rst. Added Python lines contain no `torch.load…
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👉 Steps to fix this

Actionable comments posted: 1

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)
tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py (1)

453-455: 🚀 Performance & Scalability | 🔵 Trivial | ⚡ Quick win

Track activation arrays at the per-batch spy boundary.

A post-run weak-reference check can miss arrays that ReferenceRunner retains during processing but releases before returning. Track a representative output array during each spy call and assert its concurrent lifetime separately from the batch_data mappings.

Suggested fix
     batch_refs = []
+    output_refs = []
     concurrent = []
+    output_concurrent = []

     def spy(method):
         def wrapped(self, *args):
             batch_refs.append(weakref.ref(args[-1]))
+            output_refs.append(weakref.ref(args[-1]["Y1"]))
             gc.collect()
             concurrent.append(sum(ref() is not None for ref in batch_refs))
+            output_concurrent.append(sum(ref() is not None for ref in output_refs))
             return method(self, *args)
@@
     assert len(concurrent) == 5, "every batch should reach the aggregator"
     assert max(concurrent) == 1, f"batches were retained instead of streamed: {concurrent}"
+    assert max(output_concurrent) == 1, (
+        f"output arrays were retained instead of streamed: {output_concurrent}"
+    )
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In @tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py around lines 453 - 455,
Update the spy wrapper to track a representative output array from each batch
with weak references and record how many remain alive at each spy call; assert
separately that output arrays are streamed rather than retained, alongside the
existing batch_data lifetime assertion.

  • 🪄 Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR
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Inline comments:
In @CHANGELOG.rst:
- Line 97: Shorten the ONNX AutoCast entry in the changelog to one or two
sentences for external users, stating that calibration samples are aggregated
without memory use growing with sample count. Remove the explanation of graph
outputs, activation dumps, and other implementation details.

---

Nitpick comments:
In @tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py:
- Around line 453-455: Update the spy wrapper to track a representative output
array from each batch with weak references and record how many remain alive at
each spy call; assert separately that output arrays are streamed rather than
retained, alongside the existing batch_data lifetime assertion.

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Comment thread CHANGELOG.rst Resolved
… test

The changelog entry carried root-cause detail that AGENTS.md keeps out of
CHANGELOG.rst; it is now one sentence describing the user-visible effect.

The streaming test tracked only the per-batch mapping. It now also weak-refs one
activation array from each batch, since the arrays are the memory and could
outlive the mapping that carried them.

Signed-off-by: SID <99672439+SID-6921@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot AI lite review requested due to automatic review settings September 26, 2026 23:13

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🧹 Nitpick comments (1)
tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py (1)

457-457: 🚀 Performance & Scalability | 🔵 Trivial | ⚡ Quick win

Track a known output activation in the memory assertion.

batch_data inserts input feeds before Comparator outputs. The first value is therefore an input entry, not the Y1 activation. The assertion can miss output arrays retained across batches.

Suggested fix
-            array_refs.append(weakref.ref(next(iter(batch_data.values()))))
+            array_refs.append(weakref.ref(batch_data["Y1"]))
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In @tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py at line 457, Track the
known output activation rather than the first batch entry: update the
weak-reference target in the test’s batch loop to use the Y1 value from
batch_data so the memory assertion detects output arrays retained across
batches.

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Nitpick comments:
In @tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py:
- Line 457: Track the known output activation rather than the first batch entry:
update the weak-reference target in the test’s batch loop to use the Y1 value
from batch_data so the memory assertion detects output arrays retained across
batches.

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batch_data holds the input feed before the Comparator outputs, so the first
value was X1 rather than the Y1 activation. Marking every tensor as an output is
what makes a batch big, so the outputs are what the assertion needs to watch:
retaining only the output arrays passed the previous check and fails this one.

Signed-off-by: SID <99672439+SID-6921@users.noreply.github.com>
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Checking in — CI is green and this has been open since late September with only automated review so far. Happy to address any feedback whenever a maintainer has a chance to look.

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🧹 Nitpick comments (1)
tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py (1)

482-486: 🎯 Functional Correctness | 🔵 Trivial | ⚡ Quick win

Assert the aggregated X1 and X2 extrema.

The test exercises streaming but discards ReferenceRunner.run() results. It can therefore pass when input statistics are aggregated incorrectly or when input feeds are mismatched. Store the results and assert the expected extrema:

Suggested fix
-        reference_runner.run(temp_dir)
+        results = reference_runner.run(temp_dir)

     assert len(concurrent) == 5, "every batch should reach the aggregator"
     assert max(concurrent) == 1, f"batches were retained instead of streamed: {concurrent}"
     assert max(array_concurrent) == 1, (
         f"batch activations were retained instead of streamed: {array_concurrent}"
     )
+    assert results["X1"].absmax == 4.0
+    assert results["X1"].min_val == 0.0
+    assert results["X1"].max_val == 4.0
+    assert results["X2"].absmax == 5.0
+    assert results["X2"].min_val == 1.0
+    assert results["X2"].max_val == 5.0
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Review comment at @tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py around lines
482 - 486:
Update the streaming test that calls ReferenceRunner.run() to retain its
results, then assert the expected absmax, min_val, and max_val for inputs X1 and
X2. Keep the existing streaming and concurrency assertions unchanged.

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Nitpick comments:
Review comments at @tests/unit/onnx/autocast/test_referencerunner.py:
- Around line 482-486: Update the streaming test that calls
ReferenceRunner.run() to retain its results, then assert the expected absmax,
min_val, and max_val for inputs X1 and X2. Keep the existing streaming and
concurrency assertions unchanged.

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The streaming test exercised the memory-liveness machinery but discarded
ReferenceRunner.run()'s actual return value, so a broken fold (e.g. one that
never updates the running stats) would pass silently as long as batches stayed
unretained. Store the result and assert the known X1/X2/Y1/Y2 extrema; verified
these fail against a no-op _fold_tensor_stats and pass against the real one.

Signed-off-by: Siddhardha Nanda <99672439+SID-6921@users.noreply.github.com>
AAnoosheh added a commit that referenced this pull request Oct 9, 2026
### What does this PR do?

Type of change: Bug fix

`MFTLoss.forward` flattens both logit tensors to `(batch * positions,
vocab)` and its docstring only assumes the class dimension is last, so
leading dimensions are clearly meant to be allowed:

```python
soft_log_probs = soft_log_probs.view(-1, soft_log_probs.size(-1))   # (new B, C)
target_logits  = target_logits.view(-1, target_logits.size(-1))     # (new B, C)
soft_targets = self._prepare_corrected_distributions(target_logits, labels, ...)
```

The labels were passed through untouched, and
`_prepare_corrected_distributions` rejects anything that is not 1-D:

```
ValueError: Logits must be a 2D tensor and labels must be a 1D tensor.
```

So the shapes a language model actually produces — `(batch, seq_len,
vocab)` logits against `(batch, seq_len)` labels — cannot be used:

| logits | labels | on `main` | this PR |
|---|---|---|---|
| `(2, 8, 50)` | `(2, 8)` | `ValueError` | converges, matches the
flattened form exactly |
| `(16, 50)` | `(16,)` | works | unchanged |

That is the setting Minifinetuning (arXiv:2506.15702) is for, so in
practice a caller had to flatten the labels themselves and nothing
documented that.

Flattening them alongside the logits fixes it, and the docstring now
says what shape the labels are expected in.

### Testing

`test_mft_loss_accepts_sequence_shaped_logits` drives `MFTLoss` at `(2,
8, 50)` / `(2, 8)` and asserts the result equals the pre-flattened `(16,
50)` / `(16,)` call. It fails on `main` with the `ValueError` above and
passes here.

Worth noting why this was not caught: the existing
`test_distillation_model_mft` drives `MFTLoss` through a vision model,
whose logits are already `(batch, classes)` and labels already
`(batch,)`, so the flattening never does anything there.

`tests/unit/torch/distill` is 30 passed, 1 skipped locally. The skip is
`plugins/test_huggingface_kd.py`, which needs `transformers` and is not
installed in my environment; it exercises `LogitsDistillationLoss`,
which this change does not touch.

### Before your PR is "*Ready for review*"

- Is this change backward compatible?: ✅ — already-1-D labels reshape to
themselves, so existing callers are unaffected
- If you copied code from any other sources or added a new PIP
dependency, did you follow guidance in `CONTRIBUTING.md`: N/A
- Did you write any new necessary tests?: ✅
- Did you update
[Changelog](https://github.com/NVIDIA/Model-Optimizer/blob/main/CHANGELOG.rst)?:
✅
- Did you get Claude approval on this PR?: N/A

### Additional Information

Unrelated to my open ONNX PRs (#2553, #2554, #2567, #2575, #2583) — no
shared files.

One thing I noticed next door and did not touch, in case it is of
interest: `LogitsDistillationLoss` defaults to `reduction="mean"`, while
`MFTLoss` in the same file defaults to `"batchmean"`. PyTorch warns on
every call that `"mean"` is not the KL divergence value and that it will
be changed to behave as `"batchmean"` in a future major release, so the
default path is currently a factor of the vocabulary size away from the
other two reductions and will shift silently when that lands. Changing a
training default is your call rather than mine, so I have left it alone
— happy to open a separate issue if useful.


<!-- This is an auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai
-->
## Summary by CodeRabbit

* **Bug Fixes**
* Improved handling of sequence-shaped labels when calculating
distillation loss, ensuring results match equivalent flattened inputs.
* **Tests**
* Added coverage verifying consistent loss results for sequence-shaped
and flattened inputs.
<!-- end of auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai -->

---------

Signed-off-by: Siddhardha Nanda <99672439+SID-6921@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Asha Anoosheh <aanoosheh@nvidia.com>
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Two other PRs on this repo merged this week (#2554, #2645). Checking in again on this one, still green, still waiting on a first human look.

…ream-batches

Signed-off-by: Siddhardha Nanda <99672439+SID-6921@users.noreply.github.com>

# Conflicts:
#	CHANGELOG.rst
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Hi @ajrasane, just a friendly ping on this PR. It has been open about 3 weeks. CI is green and there are no conflicts. Let me know if anything needs changing. Thanks!

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Thanks for the contribution! This PR adds its CHANGELOG.rst entry under the older 0.48.0 section. New entries on main go in the 0.49.0 section at the top of the file. Could you move the entry there when you update your branch with the latest main?

We've added the waiting for feedback label while we wait for your update.

Signed-off-by: Siddhardha Nanda <99672439+SID-6921@users.noreply.github.com>
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Done, thanks for the catch. Merged latest main and moved the entry to the 0.49.0 Bug Fixes section.

…ream-batches

Signed-off-by: Siddhardha Nanda <99672439+SID-6921@users.noreply.github.com>

# Conflicts:
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Bot review (gpt-6.1-sol) — DM the bot to share feedback.

Changes requested: first-batch NaNs now poison aggregated ranges and can bypass AutoCast’s high-precision protection.

Needs action:

  • Fix NaN handling in _init_tensor_stats to preserve the previous aggregation semantics, and add a first-batch-NaN/later-out-of-range regression test in test_referencerunner.py.

stats = OrderedDict()
for name, data in batch_data.items():
absmax, min_val, max_val = self._batch_stats(data)
stats[name] = TensorStats(

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Bot comment.

Seeding directly from the first batch changes NaN handling. Previously, aggregation started from (-inf, inf, -inf) and Python max/min ignored a NaN batch reduction. Now, if the first batch contains a NaN, all three statistics start as NaN, and _fold_tensor_stats cannot replace them with later finite values (max(nan, value) remains NaN). For example, a NaN first batch followed by an activation of 70000 previously produced absmax=70000; now it produces NaN. IORangeRule then evaluates NaN > data_max as false and may convert that out-of-range node to low precision. Initialize using the previous sentinel-and-fold semantics (or explicitly handle NaN reductions equivalently), and cover this ordering with a regression test.

@SID-6921 SID-6921 Oct 28, 2026 •

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Good catch, this is real. Confirmed it with a quick simulation: NaN first batch then an activation of 70000, old code gives 70000.0, my streaming version gave NaN.

The bug is in how Python's max() handles NaN. max(acc, x) only replaces acc when x > acc, and any comparison with NaN is False. The old code always started from -inf/inf sentinels and folded every batch through max()/min(), so a NaN batch lost its comparison and got skipped, same as it would on any later batch. My version seeded stats straight from the first batch's own values, so a NaN there became the running value directly, and no finite batch afterward could ever beat it in the max() comparison.

Fixed in 3ed75ee: _init_tensor_stats now just creates the sentinel-seeded entries, and the batch loop folds every batch, including the first, through _fold_tensor_stats. Same sentinel-and-fold semantics as before, just streamed.

Added test_multi_batch_nan_first_batch_does_not_poison_stats, reproducing your exact scenario (NaN first batch, finite batch after). Couldn't run the full suite locally (unrelated onnx packaging issue on this machine), but verified the fix against a standalone simulation of your numbers and confirmed it matches the old behavior.

kevalmorabia97 pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Oct 27, 2026
… weight (#2583)

### What does this PR do?

Type of change: Bug fix

`transpose_dequantize_linear_weights()` swaps the `DequantizeLinear`
axis by matching the literal values `0` and `1`:

```python
if old_axis == 0:
    attr.i = 1
elif old_axis == 1:
    attr.i = 0
```

ONNX also allows a negative axis (`Accepted range is [-r, r-1]`). `-1`
and `-2` match neither branch, so the weight is transposed while the
axis keeps pointing at the dimension it had before. For a per-channel
scale the axis attribute is the only thing tracking the channel
dimension, so nothing else catches it.

Checked against NumPy on a `[K, N]` weight with a per-channel scale, for
every legal 2D axis:

| weight | axis | on `main` | this PR |
|---|---|---|---|
| non-square | 0, 1 | correct | correct |
| non-square | -1, -2 | **converted model does not run** | correct |
| **square** | -1, -2 | **runs, output wrong (max diff 4.09)** | correct
|

The square case is the one worth worrying about: the scale length still
matches the axis it now points at, so nothing raises and the model
simply computes something else.

Normalizing before the swap covers every legal 2D value, and the weight
is already known to be 2D at that point:

```python
attr.i = 1 - (old_axis % 2)
```

### Testing

`test_negative_axis_is_swapped`, parametrized over `0, 1, -1, -2`,
asserts the resulting axis and compares onnxruntime output before and
after the surgery. The two negative cases fail on `main` and pass here;
the two non-negative cases pass on both, so the existing behaviour is
unchanged.

**One note on how that test runs onnxruntime.** It sets
`ORT_DISABLE_ALL`, because onnxruntime's graph optimizer does not treat
a negative `DequantizeLinear` axis the same as its non-negative
equivalent:

| | axis=1 vs axis=-1, same weights, before any surgery |
|---|---|
| optimizations disabled | max diff `0.000000` (both match NumPy
exactly) |
| optimizations enabled | max diff `0.017256` |

With optimization on, the pre-surgery model is not a trustworthy
baseline — I measured against it at first and it both masked the size of
this bug and invented a residual that was not there. That looks like an
onnxruntime issue rather than anything in this repo, so it is only
worked around in the test, not addressed here. Worth knowing if you have
other tests comparing quantized graphs across a rewrite.

`tests/unit/onnx` is 653 passed locally with 11 failures that also occur
on pristine `main` in this environment (int4 paths needing cupy, three
`TestColumnMajorTransformation` tests needing MSVC build tools). `ruff
check` is unchanged.

### Before your PR is "*Ready for review*"

- Is this change backward compatible?: ✅ — axes 0 and 1 behave exactly
as before
- If you copied code from any other sources or added a new PIP
dependency, did you follow guidance in `CONTRIBUTING.md`: N/A
- Did you write any new necessary tests?: ✅
- Did you update
[Changelog](https://github.com/NVIDIA/Model-Optimizer/blob/main/CHANGELOG.rst)?:
✅
- Did you get Claude approval on this PR?: N/A

### Additional Information

Branched from `main`. Independent of #2553, #2554, #2567 and #2575 — no
overlapping files.


<!-- This is an auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai
-->
## Summary by CodeRabbit

* **Bug Fixes**
* Fixed an issue where transposing 2D column-major weights in quantized
models could produce incorrect outputs when the quantization axis was
negative or omitted. Axis handling now accounts for positive and
negative values and the ONNX default, preserving model outputs after
transposition.
<!-- end of auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai -->

---------

Signed-off-by: Siddhardha Nanda <99672439+SID-6921@users.noreply.github.com>
meenchen flagged on review: seeding stats directly from the first batch
(instead of folding it through the same sentinel comparison as every later
batch) means a NaN in that first batch sets absmax/min_val/max_val to NaN,
and no later finite batch can ever clear it. Python's max(acc, x) only
replaces acc when x > acc, and any comparison against NaN is False, so once
acc is NaN it stays NaN regardless of what streams in afterward.

The pre-streaming code never had this problem: it always seeded from
-inf/inf/-inf sentinels and folded every batch, including the first, through
max()/min(). A NaN batch_absmax loses its comparison against the sentinel
(or any real running value) and is silently skipped, exactly like it is for
every batch after the first.

Fix: _init_tensor_stats now only seeds the sentinels (no longer reads the
first batch's values), and the batch loop folds every batch, including the
first, through _fold_tensor_stats.

Added test_multi_batch_nan_first_batch_does_not_poison_stats, reproducing
meenchen's exact scenario (NaN first batch, then an activation of 10.0) and
asserting the aggregated stat is finite.

Verified with a standalone simulation of old/buggy/fixed aggregation against
meenchen's exact numbers (NaN batch then 70000): old and fixed both report
70000.0, the buggy version reports NaN. Could not run the real test suite in
this environment (local onnx install has a package-metadata/compiled-extension
version mismatch unrelated to this change; TensorProto.FLOAT4E2M1 import
fails even after reinstalling onnx 1.23.2).

Signed-off-by: Siddhardha Nanda <99672439+SID-6921@users.noreply.github.com>
@SID-6921

SID-6921 commented Nov 3, 2026

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Checking back in on this one. Still green and mergeable, no review yet since the earlier fixes. Happy to make any further changes.

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Only 1 sample from AutoCast calibration data set is truly used

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