February 2, 2026
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TileIR Internals
Hidden flags, rabbit holes, and one pro-tip the devs can’t stop sharing
TLDR: NVIDIA explained how its TileIR compiler turns simple tile-based code into fast GPU instructions, tracing a complex MoE example end to end. The community latched onto a hidden “—help-hidden” flag and debated the thrill of powerful, undocumented options versus the pain of features that might change later
NVIDIA just dropped a deep dive into TileIR—the behind‑the‑scenes engine that turns friendly, high‑level code into the machine instructions that make GPUs roar. It follows a Mixture‑of‑Experts (MoE) kernel from Python all the way down to raw chip commands, and yes, it’s as intense as it sounds. The post promises power: think in “tiles” instead of threads, and let the compiler juggle the chaos.
But the community didn’t just read—it sprinted for the hidden switches. The moment someone pointed out that running tileiras with “—help-hidden” reveals a treasure trove of options, the vibe shifted from lecture hall to scavenger hunt. Cue the sighs at the line “some details are undocumented and may change,” which sparked the classic split: optimists call it cutting‑edge, skeptics call it a moving target. Enthusiasts are already poking every corner for secret speed boosts, while pragmatists warn that undocumented knobs are how you end up babysitting broken builds.
It’s peak nerd theater: a hyper‑technical explainer overshadowed by a single tip that feels like a cheat code. Jokes about Easter eggs and “help menus that go brrr” lit up the thread, while others begged for clearer docs. Either way, TileIR just turned into a treasure map—and everyone wants the loot
Key Points
- •The article details how TileIR lowers CuTile code through cuda_tile, nv_tileaa, nv_tileas, NVVM, LLVM, to final SASS.
- •CuTile is a tile-centric programming model enabling programmers to work with tiles while the compiler coordinates threads.
- •A Mixture-of-Experts fused_moe_kernel from cutile-python is traced, mapping each CuTile operation to cuda_tile equivalents.
- •The compilation pipeline is orchestrated by the tileiras tool and is based on CUDA 13.1, with some undocumented details.
- •Key operations include get_tile_block_id, load_view_tko, load_ptr_tko, mmaf, mulf, ftof, and store_ptr_tko used throughout the kernel.