mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Breaking the Memory Wall: Exact Analytical Differentiation via Tiled Operator-Space Evolution

arXiv 2512.23068 ↗First posted 28 Dec 2025cs.LGcited by 0

On the map: State-space sequence models (S4, Mamba) → Core SSM architectures for language

Abstract (arXiv)

Selective State Space Models (SSMs) achieve linear-time inference, yet their gradient-based sensitivity analysis remains bottlenecked by O(L) memory scaling during backpropagation. This memory constraint precludes genomic-scale modeling (L > 10^5) on consumer-grade hardware. We introduce Phase Gradient Flow (PGF), a framework that computes exact analytical derivatives by operating directly in the state-space manifold, bypassing the need to materialize the intermediate computational graph. By reframing SSM dynamics as Tiled Operator-Space Evolution (TOSE), our method delivers O(1) memory complexity relative to sequence length, yielding a 94% reduction in peak VRAM and a 23x increase in throughput compared to standard Autograd. Unlike parallel prefix scans that exhibit numerical divergence in stiff ODE regimes, PGF ensures stability through invariant error scaling, maintaining near-machine precision across extreme sequences. We demonstrate the utility of PGF on an impulse-response benchmark with 128,000-step sequences - a scale where conventional Autograd encounters prohibitive memory overhead, often leading to out-of-memory (OOM) failures in multi-layered models. Our work enables chromosome-scale sensitivity analysis on a single GPU, bridging the gap between theoretical infinite-context models and practical hardware limitations.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Core SSM architectures for language, one of 10 directions in State-space sequence models (S4, Mamba). Builds on 19 of its 29 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 Dec 2025.

Builds on

19 of 29 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023Mamba: Linear-Time Sequence Modeling with Selective State Spaces1 Dec
  2. 2021Efficiently Modeling Long Sequences with Structured State Spaces31 Oct

Other references · 17

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 59,932
  2. 2018Neural Ordinary Differential Equationscited by 3,733
  3. 2022FlashAttention: Fast and Memory-Efficient Exact Attention with IO-Awarenesscited by 3,611
  4. 2023FlashAttention-2: Faster Attention with Better Parallelism and Work Partitioningcited by 2,551
  5. 2020Transformers are RNNs: Fast Autoregressive Transformers with Linear Attentioncited by 1,979
  6. 2015Automatic differentiation in machine learning: a surveycited by 846
  7. 2016Training Deep Nets with Sublinear Memory Costcited by 825
  8. 2023RWKV: Reinventing RNNs for the Transformer Eracited by 814
  9. 2023Retentive Network: A Successor to Transformer for Large Language Modelscited by 594
  10. 2022Hungry Hungry Hippos: Towards Language Modeling with State Space Modelscited by 495
  11. 2022On the Parameterization and Initialization of Diagonal State Space Modelscited by 418
  12. 2023Resurrecting Recurrent Neural Networks for Long Sequencescited by 397
5 more
  1. 2023Hyena Hierarchy: Towards Larger Convolutional Language Modelscited by 388
  2. 2024xLSTM: Extended Long Short-Term Memorycited by 320
  3. 2017The Reversible Residual Network: Backpropagation Without Storing Activationscited by 215
  4. 2023HyenaDNA: Long-Range Genomic Sequence Modeling at Single Nucleotide Resolutioncited by 187
  5. 2017Parallelizing Linear Recurrent Neural Nets Over Sequence Lengthcited by 126

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  1. 2025Leveraging State Space Models in Long Range Genomics
  2. 2026MuonSSM: Orthogonalizing State Space Models for Sequence Modeling
  3. 2024S7: Selective and Simplified State Space Layers for Sequence Modeling
  4. 2026MaRK: Markov-adapted Recurrent Kernels for Dynamic Operator Conditioning in State Space Models
  5. 2024Mathematical Formalism for Memory Compression in Selective State Space Models
  6. 2025Numerical Investigation of Sequence Modeling Theory using Controllable Memory Functions
  7. 2025MS-SSM: A Multi-Scale State Space Model for Efficient Sequence Modeling
  8. 2025LISM: Long-range Integrative State space Models via Input-Latent State Interactions