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VK_ARM_tensors

Other Extension Metadata

Last Modified Date

2026-01-07

Interactions and External Dependencies
IP Status

No known IP claims.

Contributors
  • Kévin Petit, Arm Ltd.
  • Einar Hov, Arm Ltd.
  • Dominic Symes, Arm Ltd.
  • Jan-Harald Fredriksen, Arm Ltd.
  • Marco Cattani, Arm Ltd.
  • Lisa Wu, Arm Ltd.
  • Robert Hughes, Arm Ltd.
  • David Garbett, Arm Ltd.
  • Oualid Khelifi, Arm Ltd.

Description

This extension adds support for tensors.

New Object Types

New Commands

If VK_EXT_descriptor_buffer is supported:

New Structures

If VK_EXT_descriptor_buffer is supported:

If VK_EXT_frame_boundary is supported:

New Enums

New Bitmasks

New Enum Constants

  • VK_ARM_TENSORS_EXTENSION_NAME
  • VK_ARM_TENSORS_SPEC_VERSION
  • Extending VkDescriptorType:
    • VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_TENSOR_ARM
  • Extending VkFormat:
    • VK_FORMAT_R8_BOOL_ARM
  • Extending VkFormatFeatureFlagBits2:
    • VK_FORMAT_FEATURE_2_TENSOR_IMAGE_ALIASING_BIT_ARM
    • VK_FORMAT_FEATURE_2_TENSOR_SHADER_BIT_ARM
  • Extending VkImageLayout:
    • VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_TENSOR_ALIASING_ARM
  • Extending VkImageUsageFlagBits:
    • VK_IMAGE_USAGE_TENSOR_ALIASING_BIT_ARM
  • Extending VkObjectType:
    • VK_OBJECT_TYPE_TENSOR_ARM
    • VK_OBJECT_TYPE_TENSOR_VIEW_ARM
  • Extending VkStructureType:
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_BIND_TENSOR_MEMORY_INFO_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_COPY_TENSOR_INFO_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_DEVICE_TENSOR_MEMORY_REQUIREMENTS_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_EXTERNAL_MEMORY_TENSOR_CREATE_INFO_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_EXTERNAL_TENSOR_PROPERTIES_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_MEMORY_DEDICATED_ALLOCATE_INFO_TENSOR_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_EXTERNAL_TENSOR_INFO_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TENSOR_FEATURES_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TENSOR_PROPERTIES_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_TENSOR_COPY_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_TENSOR_CREATE_INFO_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_TENSOR_DEPENDENCY_INFO_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_TENSOR_DESCRIPTION_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_TENSOR_FORMAT_PROPERTIES_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_TENSOR_MEMORY_BARRIER_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_TENSOR_MEMORY_REQUIREMENTS_INFO_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_TENSOR_VIEW_CREATE_INFO_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_WRITE_DESCRIPTOR_SET_TENSOR_ARM

If VK_EXT_descriptor_buffer is supported:

  • Extending VkStructureType:
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_DESCRIPTOR_GET_TENSOR_INFO_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR_BUFFER_TENSOR_FEATURES_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR_BUFFER_TENSOR_PROPERTIES_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_TENSOR_CAPTURE_DESCRIPTOR_DATA_INFO_ARM
    • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_TENSOR_VIEW_CAPTURE_DESCRIPTOR_DATA_INFO_ARM
  • Extending VkTensorCreateFlagBitsARM:
    • VK_TENSOR_CREATE_DESCRIPTOR_BUFFER_CAPTURE_REPLAY_BIT_ARM
  • Extending VkTensorViewCreateFlagBitsARM:
    • VK_TENSOR_VIEW_CREATE_DESCRIPTOR_BUFFER_CAPTURE_REPLAY_BIT_ARM

If VK_EXT_frame_boundary is supported:

If VK_EXT_shader_float8 is supported:

  • Extending VkFormat:
    • VK_FORMAT_R8_SFLOAT_FPENCODING_FLOAT8E4M3_ARM
    • VK_FORMAT_R8_SFLOAT_FPENCODING_FLOAT8E5M2_ARM

If VK_KHR_shader_bfloat16 is supported:

  • Extending VkFormat:
    • VK_FORMAT_R16_SFLOAT_FPENCODING_BFLOAT16_ARM

New SPIR-V Capabilities

Issues

1) Should tensor strides be passed in elements or in bytes?

RESOLVED: Strides are passed in bytes but are required to be a multiple of the tensor element size. Passing strides in bytes makes it possible to relax this requirement in the future without an interface change. It also makes it easier to describe memory alignment requirements.

2) Should there be commands to copy data between tensors and buffers/images?

RESOLVED: Adding these commands would result in a rather large API surface and not insignificant implementation and validation cost. The same outcome can be achieved with memory aliasing and tensor to tensor copy operations.

3) Should this extension define transpose and/or other data reorganization operations?

RESOLVED: These operations are useful to expose but this extension is only meant to add base support for tensors. Additional operations should be layered on top and defined in other extensions.

4) Why are tensor strides described using signed integers?

RESOLVED: Negative strides make it possible to describe different linear data layouts. While this extension does not allow negative strides, it uses signed integers for strides to make it possible to relax this limitation in future extensions.

Version History

  • Revision 2, 2026-01-07 (Kévin Petit)
    • Add interactions with VK_KHR_unified_image_layouts, VK_KHR_shader_bfloat16, and VK_EXT_shader_float8
  • Revision 1, 2025-06-03 (Kévin Petit)
    • Initial revision