int4 (4-bit) operations

[andrii0lomakin]

Hello.
I checked the code but decided to double-check.
Does TornadoVM support INT4 (4-bit) arithmetic operations and data types?

[jjfumero]

Hi @Laa , not at the moment.

[andrii0lomakin]

It will probably be much simpler once there is a value class preview. Panama project already has plans to support half-precision float16 arithmetic.

[jjfumero]

I do agree. In TornadoVM we took the initiative to support FP16.

https://github.com/beehive-lab/TornadoVM/blob/master/tornado-api/src/main/java/uk/ac/manchester/tornado/api/types/arrays/HalfFloatArray.java

So 4-bit int will be similar to FP16, the main issue is the mapping to all target architecture/s that TornadoVM supports. AFAIK, only latest NVIDIA support this.