Strata v0.1.33

The image encoder runs on every CPU again, and setup recommends instead of forcing: a longer context, more GPUs or a bigger RAM budget you choose is kept, with a note about the risk.

Images (#411, #412): 0.1.32's ready-made strata-vision.exe was built with AVX-512 and OpenMP and stopped at start on CPUs without AVX-512 (most AMD Ryzen before Zen 4, many Intel desktop CPUs): "illegal instruction" or "the vision encoder did not start". 0.1.33's is built portable again (AVX2, no OpenMP), like 0.1.31's, and keeps 0.1.32's RTX 20 code. Running START-HERE.bat once installs it.

Setup recommends, you choose (#406, #403, #364, #384):

• Context: setup still recommends 128K for IQ3_XXS / IQ3_S on a 64 GB PC, but a longer one you pick (or

--context 262144) is kept, with a note that it may run out of RAM under load. An update keeps your earlier context, and in the low-RAM mode the context no longer counts against RAM.

• Several GPUs on a low-RAM PC: setup asks whether to use one GPU (the default: experts kept in RAM, steady RAM

use) or all of them (experts read through the OS file cache: 1.3-1.6x faster in two users' measurements, but RAM can fill up during long prompts). --gpus 0,1 is honoured. The engine runs --resident-experts with a layer split as --mmap-experts, with a warning, instead of refusing to start.

• RAM budget (`--resident-budget-gib`): a budget larger than the free RAM no longer fails the safety check after

the engine lowers it (#403), and a budget that can't be kept at all is a warning. Setup takes --resident-budget-gib N.

• Setup asks instead of stopping when a model is above its RAM estimate, or a named card has under 8 GB for a

split. --yes alone keeps the recommended choices. --kv-streaming on|off|auto is new.

• With --yes or Enter for every question, setup writes exactly the same config as 0.1.32 (checked on 23

PC/model combinations).

Fixes:

• V100 (sm_70) in a layer split: the prompt's attention uses the kernel that card supports again (#371, AxalotLDev).
• --expert-cache-per-layer starts on native packs and fills every layer (#369, dag08).
• STRATA_GR_V3=1 (opt-in) keeps the default read on cards where its two-half split fails its checks (Turing; #375,

kenh0u); its test compares within float rounding (#379, sergqwer).

• Server: a request the chat template refuses ("No user query found in messages.") gets a 400 error instead of a

dropped connection (#365); a temporary image file is removed when the encoder fails (#352, Tsury); the image encoder can run on its own GPU, "cuda_device" in the vision section (#408, Efs-O).

• Setup stops when its input ends instead of answering yes, e.g. to installing the build tools (#393, #398 by

Bortlesboat); a setup test no longer fails on a PC with CUDA installed (#414, rwkeyes).

• Docs: byte-identical greedy repeats through the server also need --prompt-cache 0 --adapt-swaps 0 (#410).

Checked before the release:

• Same answers as 0.1.32 on all four quants (Q2_0, IQ3_XXS, IQ3_S, the Coder), 10/10 each with a fixed cache.

The prompt path's internal state at 4K and 20K tokens is identical too. The default speed is unchanged within noise (5-pair A/B, same expert slots). The merged release was checked again on Q2_0 and IQ3_XXS.

• The image encoder: no AVX-512 instructions and no OpenMP (the same profile as 0.1.31's, which ran on CPUs

without AVX-512), and the image test passes behind the server (greedy colour and three sampled descriptions).

• Real use at a 57K-token prompt through the server on Q2_0 and the Coder.
• Linux (WSL, RTX 5070): Q2_0 byte-identical to 0.1.32 (10/10), and the default settings pass.
• AMD (R9700): the HIP build and its tests. All pass except the two that need a model fixture or an AVX-512 CPU,

as in 0.1.32.

• Tests: setup's tests (120, including a golden check that --yes/Enter configs are byte-identical to 0.1.32's

on 23 PC/model combinations), the server's (141), the tools', and the parity tests of the changed kernels (QSA prompt attention, the hyper-connection read with and without V3, the per-layer expert cache).

• #403: an engine started with --resident-budget-gib 500 lowers the budget with its margin, starts and answers.

Updating: get the latest files (git pull, or download and unzip anywhere), then run START-HERE.bat (Linux: ./setup.sh). Setup installs engine 0.1.33.

The ready-made Strata engine for Windows (RTX 20 / 30 / 40 / 50: sm_75, sm_86, sm_89, sm_120 + PTX), CUDA 13.0.

You don't need to download this yourself: START-HERE.bat fetches it (and NVIDIA's cuBLAS from pip), so no compiler or CUDA Toolkit is needed, only an NVIDIA driver 580 or newer.

Contents: strata.exe (the engine), strata-vision.exe (the optional image encoder), BUILD.json.