perf: replace paged KV cache with contiguous ContiguousCache, decode all groups

- Add KVCache/CacheView abstract base classes in cache.py
- Add ContiguousCache (contiguous per-slot buffer, default) alongside PageCache (paged, renamed from old KVCache)
- Merge make_table_tensor + bind into bind_tasks on KVCache interface
- Remove task_cached/task_record_hashes from base class (PageCache-only)
- Scheduler: decode all position groups instead of just the largest (eliminates 63% group skip rate)
- Scheduler: accept optional cache param for swapping implementations
- Model layer type hints use CacheView base class
- Batch 1-32: 1-7% speedup from eliminating Storage.gather overhead
- All 183 inference tests pass

astrai/inference/__init__.py

@@ -30,10 +30,14 @@ from astrai.inference.api.openai import OpenAIResponseBuilder
 from astrai.inference.core import (
     STOP,
     Allocator,
+    CacheView,
+    ContiguousCache,
+    ContiguousCacheView,
     Executor,
     InferenceScheduler,
     KVCache,
-    KvcacheView,
+    PageCache,
+    PageCacheView,
     PagePool,
     PrefixCache,
     Storage,
@@ -63,8 +67,12 @@ __all__ = [
     "TaskManager",
     "TaskStatus",
     "Allocator",
+    "CacheView",
     "KVCache",
-    "KvcacheView",
+    "ContiguousCache",
+    "ContiguousCacheView",
+    "PageCache",
+    "PageCacheView",
     "PagePool",
     "PrefixCache",
     "Storage",

astrai/inference/core/__init__.py

@@ -2,8 +2,12 @@
 
 from astrai.inference.core.cache import (
     Allocator,
+    CacheView,
+    ContiguousCache,
+    ContiguousCacheView,
     KVCache,
-    KvcacheView,
+    PageCache,
+    PageCacheView,
     PagePool,
     PrefixCache,
     Storage,
@@ -16,8 +20,12 @@ from astrai.inference.core.task import STOP, Task, TaskManager, TaskStatus
 
 __all__ = [
     "Allocator",
+    "CacheView",
     "KVCache",
-    "KvcacheView",
+    "ContiguousCache",
+    "ContiguousCacheView",
+    "PageCache",
+    "PageCacheView",
     "PagePool",
     "PrefixCache",
     "Storage",

astrai/inference/core/cache.py

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import threading
+from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
 from collections import OrderedDict
 from typing import Callable, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple
 
@@ -275,7 +276,35 @@ class Storage:
         return k, v
 
 
-class KvcacheView:
+class CacheView(ABC):
+    """Abstract view passed to attention layers for KV-cache I/O."""
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def write(self, layer_id: int, k: Tensor, v: Tensor): ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def gather(self, layer_id: int) -> Tuple[Tensor, Tensor]: ...
+
+
+class KVCache(ABC):
+    """Abstract KV-cache facade for scheduler/executor."""
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def task_alloc(self, task_id: str, prompt_ids: List[int]) -> bool: ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def task_free(self, task_id: str): ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def task_extend(self, task_id: str, pos: int) -> bool: ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def bind_tasks(
+        self, task_ids: List[str], total_len: int, device: torch.device
+    ) -> CacheView: ...
+
+
+class PageCacheView(CacheView):
     """Bundles Storage + page_table + total_len for attention layers."""
 
     def __init__(self, storage: Storage, page_table: Tensor, total_len: int = 0):
@@ -291,8 +320,8 @@ class KvcacheView:
         return self._storage.gather(layer_id, self._page_table, self._total_len)
 
 
-class KVCache:
+class PageCache(KVCache):
-    """Facade: page management + KV-cache I/O for continuous batching."""
+    """Paged KV-cache with prefix sharing."""
 
     def __init__(
         self,
@@ -362,8 +391,102 @@ class KVCache:
         for i in range(start_logical_page, full_pages):
             self._pool.record(page_table[i], prompt_ids, i)
 
-    def make_table_tensor(self, task_ids: List[str], device: torch.device) -> Tensor:
+    def bind_tasks(
-        return self._table.table_tensor(task_ids, device)
+        self, task_ids: List[str], total_len: int, device: torch.device
+    ) -> PageCacheView:
+        page_table = self._table.table_tensor(task_ids, device)
+        return PageCacheView(self._storage, page_table, total_len)
 
-    def bind(self, page_table: Tensor, total_len: int = 0) -> KvcacheView:
+
-        return KvcacheView(self._storage, page_table, total_len)
+class ContiguousCacheView(CacheView):
+    """Contiguous KV-cache view for attention layers."""
+
+    def __init__(
+        self, cache: "ContiguousCache", batch_indices: Tensor, total_len: int = 0
+    ):
+        self._cache = cache
+        self._batch_indices = batch_indices
+        self._total_len = total_len
+
+    def write(self, layer_id: int, k: Tensor, v: Tensor):
+        seq_len = k.size(1)
+        start_pos = self._total_len - seq_len
+        indices = self._batch_indices
+        self._cache.k[layer_id, indices, start_pos : start_pos + seq_len] = k
+        self._cache.v[layer_id, indices, start_pos : start_pos + seq_len] = v
+        new_len = start_pos + seq_len
+        for s in indices.tolist():
+            cur = self._cache._slot_len.get(s, 0)
+            if new_len > cur:
+                self._cache._slot_len[s] = new_len
+
+    def gather(self, layer_id: int) -> Tuple[Tensor, Tensor]:
+        max_len = max(
+            self._cache._slot_len.get(int(s), 0) for s in self._batch_indices.tolist()
+        )
+        indices = self._batch_indices
+        k = self._cache.k[layer_id, indices, :max_len]
+        v = self._cache.v[layer_id, indices, :max_len]
+        return k, v
+
+
+class ContiguousCache(KVCache):
+    """Contiguous per-slot KV cache (default implementation)."""
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        n_layers: int,
+        max_batch_size: int,
+        max_seq_len: int,
+        n_kv_heads: int,
+        head_dim: int,
+        device: torch.device,
+        dtype: torch.dtype,
+    ):
+        self.max_seq_len = max_seq_len
+        self.k = torch.zeros(
+            n_layers,
+            max_batch_size,
+            max_seq_len,
+            n_kv_heads,
+            head_dim,
+            device=device,
+            dtype=dtype,
+        )
+        self.v = torch.zeros(
+            n_layers,
+            max_batch_size,
+            max_seq_len,
+            n_kv_heads,
+            head_dim,
+            device=device,
+            dtype=dtype,
+        )
+        self._slot_len: Dict[int, int] = {}
+        self._task_slot: Dict[str, int] = {}
+        self._free_slots = list(range(max_batch_size))
+        self._device = device
+
+    def task_alloc(self, task_id: str, prompt_ids: List[int]) -> bool:
+        if not self._free_slots:
+            return False
+        slot = self._free_slots.pop(0)
+        self._task_slot[task_id] = slot
+        self._slot_len[slot] = 0
+        return True
+
+    def task_free(self, task_id: str):
+        slot = self._task_slot.pop(task_id, None)
+        if slot is not None:
+            self._slot_len.pop(slot, None)
+            self._free_slots.append(slot)
+
+    def task_extend(self, task_id: str, pos: int) -> bool:
+        return pos < self.max_seq_len
+
+    def bind_tasks(
+        self, task_ids: List[str], total_len: int, device: torch.device
+    ) -> ContiguousCacheView:
+        slots = [self._task_slot[tid] for tid in task_ids]
+        batch_indices = torch.tensor(slots, dtype=torch.long, device=device)
+        return ContiguousCacheView(self, batch_indices, total_len)

astrai/inference/core/executor.py

@@ -43,7 +43,6 @@ class Executor:
         )
 
         task_ids = [t.task_id for t in tasks]
-        page_tables = self.page_cache.make_table_tensor(task_ids, self.device)
 
         with torch.inference_mode():
             self.model(
@@ -53,7 +52,9 @@ class Executor:
                 )
                 .unsqueeze(0)
                 .expand(batch_sz, -1),
-                paged_cache=self.page_cache.bind(page_tables, total_len=prompt_len),
+                paged_cache=self.page_cache.bind_tasks(
+                    task_ids, prompt_len, self.device
+                ),
             )
 
     def execute_decode(self, tasks: List[Task]) -> List[int]:
@@ -72,7 +73,6 @@ class Executor:
         total_len = position_ids.max().item() + 1
 
         task_ids = [t.task_id for t in tasks]
-        page_tables = self.page_cache.make_table_tensor(task_ids, self.device)
 
         temperatures = torch.tensor([t.temperature for t in tasks], device=self.device)
         top_ks = torch.tensor([t.top_k for t in tasks], device=self.device)
@@ -81,7 +81,9 @@ class Executor:
         with torch.inference_mode():
             outputs = self.model(
                 input_ids.unsqueeze(1),
-                paged_cache=self.page_cache.bind(page_tables, total_len=total_len),
+                paged_cache=self.page_cache.bind_tasks(
+                    task_ids, total_len, self.device
+                ),
                 position_ids=position_ids.unsqueeze(1),
             )
             logits = outputs["logits"][:, -1, :]

astrai/inference/core/scheduler.py

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple
 
 import torch
 
-from astrai.inference.core.cache import KVCache
+from astrai.inference.core.cache import ContiguousCache, KVCache
 from astrai.inference.core.executor import Executor
 from astrai.inference.core.task import STOP, Task, TaskManager, TaskStatus
 from astrai.model.automodel import AutoModel
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
 class InferenceScheduler:
-    """Four-phase continuous batching loop: cleanup -> refill -> prefill -> decode."""
+    """Continuous batching loop: cleanup -> refill -> prefill -> decode (all groups)."""
 
     def __init__(
         self,
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ class InferenceScheduler:
         page_size: int = 64,
         device: Optional[str] = None,
         dtype: Optional[torch.dtype] = None,
+        cache: Optional[KVCache] = None,
     ):
         config = model.config
 
@@ -41,19 +42,20 @@ class InferenceScheduler:
         self.device = device or next(model.parameters()).device
         self.dtype = dtype or next(model.parameters()).dtype
 
-        n_pages = (
+        head_dim = config.dim // config.n_heads
-            max_batch_size * (self.max_seq_len + page_size) + page_size - 1
-        ) // page_size
 
-        self._page_cache = KVCache(
+        if cache is not None:
-            config.n_layers,
+            self._cache = cache
-            n_pages,
+        else:
-            page_size,
+            self._cache = ContiguousCache(
-            config.n_kv_heads,
+                config.n_layers,
-            config.dim // config.n_heads,
+                max_batch_size,
-            self.device,
+                self.max_seq_len,
-            self.dtype,
+                config.n_kv_heads,
-        )
+                head_dim,
+                self.device,
+                self.dtype,
+            )
 
         self._task_mgr = TaskManager(
             tokenizer=tokenizer,
@@ -65,7 +67,7 @@ class InferenceScheduler:
         self._executor = Executor(
             model=model,
             tokenizer=tokenizer,
-            page_cache=self._page_cache,
+            page_cache=self._cache,
             device=self.device,
             dtype=self.dtype,
         )
@@ -78,18 +80,35 @@ class InferenceScheduler:
 
     def remove_task(self, task_id: str):
         for task in self._task_mgr.remove_task(task_id):
-            self._page_cache.task_free(task.task_id)
+            self._cache.task_free(task.task_id)
 
     def get_stats(self) -> Dict[str, Any]:
         return self._task_mgr.get_stats()
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def _cached(cache: KVCache, task_id: str) -> int:
+        fn = getattr(cache, "task_cached", None)
+        return fn(task_id) if fn else 0
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _record_hashes(
+        cache: KVCache,
+        task_id: str,
+        prompt_ids: List[int],
+        start_logical_page: int = 0,
+    ):
+        fn = getattr(cache, "task_record_hashes", None)
+        if fn:
+            fn(task_id, prompt_ids, start_logical_page=start_logical_page)
+
     def _run_generation_loop(self):
         stop_ids = self._task_mgr.tokenizer.stop_ids
+        cache = self._cache
         try:
             while not self._stop_event.is_set():
                 finished = self._task_mgr.remove_finished_tasks(stop_ids)
                 for task in finished:
-                    self._page_cache.task_free(task.task_id)
+                    cache.task_free(task.task_id)
 
                 active = self._task_mgr.get_active_tasks()
                 available = self._task_mgr.max_batch_size - len(active)
@@ -97,7 +116,7 @@ class InferenceScheduler:
                     candidates = self._task_mgr.pull_candidates(available)
                     failed = []
                     for task in candidates:
-                        if self._page_cache.task_alloc(task.task_id, task.prompt_ids):
+                        if cache.task_alloc(task.task_id, task.prompt_ids):
                             self._task_mgr.activate(task)
                         else:
                             failed.append(task)
@@ -112,7 +131,7 @@ class InferenceScheduler:
                     t
                     for t in self._task_mgr.get_active_tasks()
                     if t.output_tokens == 0
-                    and self._page_cache.task_cached(t.task_id) < len(t.prompt_ids)
+                    and self._cached(cache, t.task_id) < len(t.prompt_ids)
                 ]
                 if to_prefill:
                     for t in to_prefill:
@@ -122,31 +141,30 @@ class InferenceScheduler:
                     for t in to_prefill:
                         key = (
                             len(t.prompt_ids),
-                            self._page_cache.task_cached(t.task_id),
+                            self._cached(cache, t.task_id),
                         )
                         groups.setdefault(key, []).append(t)
 
                     for (prompt_len, start_pos), group in groups.items():
                         self._executor.execute_prefill(group, prompt_len, start_pos)
-                        start_logical_page = start_pos // self._page_cache.page_size
+                        start_logical_page = start_pos // getattr(
+                            cache, "page_size", 64
+                        )
                         for t in group:
-                            self._page_cache.task_record_hashes(
+                            self._record_hashes(
-                                t.task_id,
+                                cache, t.task_id, t.prompt_ids, start_logical_page
-                                t.prompt_ids,
-                                start_logical_page=start_logical_page,
                             )
 
                 pos_groups: Dict[int, List[Task]] = {}
                 for t in self._task_mgr.get_active_tasks():
                     pos_groups.setdefault(t.next_pos, []).append(t)
 
-                if pos_groups:
+                for next_pos in sorted(pos_groups.keys()):
-                    best_key = max(pos_groups, key=lambda k: len(pos_groups[k]))
+                    group = sorted(pos_groups[next_pos], key=lambda t: t.task_id)
-                    group = sorted(pos_groups[best_key], key=lambda t: t.task_id)
 
                     valid: List[Task] = []
                     for t in group:
-                        if self._page_cache.task_extend(t.task_id, t.next_pos):
+                        if cache.task_extend(t.task_id, t.next_pos):
                             valid.append(t)
                         else:
                             t.status = TaskStatus.ABORTED
@@ -159,16 +177,10 @@ class InferenceScheduler:
                         for t, ntok in zip(valid, next_tokens):
                             t.output_ids.append(ntok)
                             t.output_tokens += 1
-                            pos = t.input_tokens + t.output_tokens
-                            extend_ok = self._page_cache.task_extend(t.task_id, pos)
                             if t.stream_callback:
                                 t.stream_callback(
                                     self._task_mgr.tokenizer.decode([ntok])
                                 )
-                            if not extend_ok:
-                                t.status = TaskStatus.ABORTED
-                                if t.stream_callback:
-                                    t.stream_callback(STOP)
 
                         for t in valid:
                             if t.is_finished(stop_ids):
@@ -181,7 +193,7 @@ class InferenceScheduler:
             for task in self._task_mgr.get_active_tasks():
                 if task.stream_callback:
                     task.stream_callback(STOP)
-                self._page_cache.task_free(task.task_id)
+                cache.task_free(task.task_id)
             for task in self._task_mgr.get_waiting_tasks():
                 if task.stream_callback:
                     task.stream_callback(STOP)
@@ -204,7 +216,7 @@ class InferenceScheduler:
         for task in self._task_mgr.get_active_tasks():
             if task.stream_callback:
                 task.stream_callback(STOP)
-            self._page_cache.task_free(task.task_id)
+            self._cache.task_free(task.task_id)
         for task in self._task_mgr.get_waiting_tasks():
             if task.stream_callback:
                 task.stream_callback(STOP)

astrai/model/components/attention.py

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import torch.nn.functional as F
 from torch import Tensor
 
 from astrai.factory import BaseFactory
-from astrai.inference.core.cache import KvcacheView
+from astrai.inference.core.cache import CacheView
 from astrai.model.components.linear import Linear
 from astrai.model.components.norm import RMSNorm
 from astrai.model.components.rope import apply_rotary_emb
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ class GQA(nn.Module):
         x: Tensor,
         rotary_emb: Tensor,
         attn_mask: Tensor = None,
-        paged_cache: Optional[KvcacheView] = None,
+        paged_cache: Optional[CacheView] = None,
     ) -> Tensor:
         is_causal = attn_mask is None
 
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ class MLA(nn.Module):
         x: Tensor,
         rotary_emb: Tensor,
         attn_mask: Tensor = None,
-        paged_cache: Optional[KvcacheView] = None,
+        paged_cache: Optional[CacheView] = None,
     ) -> Tensor:
         bsz, seq_len, _ = x.size()
         is_causal = attn_mask is None

astrai/model/components/decoder_block.py

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ from typing import Optional
 import torch.nn as nn
 from torch import Tensor
 
-from astrai.inference.core.cache import KvcacheView
+from astrai.inference.core.cache import CacheView
 from astrai.model.components.attention import AttnFactory
 from astrai.model.components.mlp import FFNFactory
 from astrai.model.components.norm import RMSNorm
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ class DecoderBlock(nn.Module):
         x: Tensor,
         rotary_emb: Tensor,
         attention_mask: Optional[Tensor] = None,
-        paged_cache: Optional[KvcacheView] = None,
+        paged_cache: Optional[CacheView] = None,
     ) -> Tensor:
         attn_output = self.attention(
             self.input_norm(x),

astrai/model/transformer.py

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import torch.nn as nn
 from torch import Tensor
 
 from astrai.config.model_config import AutoRegressiveLMConfig
-from astrai.inference.core.cache import KvcacheView
+from astrai.inference.core.cache import CacheView
 from astrai.model.automodel import AutoModel
 from astrai.model.components.decoder_block import DecoderBlock
 from astrai.model.components.embedding import Embedding
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ class AutoRegressiveLM(AutoModel):
         self,
         input_ids: Tensor,
         input_mask: Optional[Tensor] = None,
-        paged_cache: Optional[KvcacheView] = None,
+        paged_cache: Optional[CacheView] = None,
         position_ids: Optional[Tensor] = None,
     ) -> Dict[str, Tensor]:
         assert input_ids.ndim == 2

tests/inference/test_cache.py

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import torch
 
 from astrai.inference import (
     Allocator,
-    KVCache,
+    PageCache,
     PagePool,
     PrefixCache,
     Storage,
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ def test_task_table_pop():
 
 
 def test_kv_cache_task_extend_allocates():
-    cache = KVCache(
+    cache = PageCache(
         n_layers=1,
         n_pages=8,
         page_size=64,
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ def test_kv_cache_task_extend_allocates():
 
 
 def test_kv_cache_task_extend_fails_when_pool_full():
-    cache = KVCache(
+    cache = PageCache(
         n_layers=1,
         n_pages=2,
         page_size=64,