kleinnner/camus-10-kv-cache-quantization

We attempted KV cache quantization to Q4 — and documented why it fails on the qwen2vl architecture.

KV Cache Quantization Attempt: type_k/type_v on qwen2vl Architecture

---

The Problem

The KV cache consumes significant memory bandwidth during autoregressive generation. On CPU-bound systems, memory bandwidth is the primary bottleneck. Quantizing the KV cache from FP16 to Q4 theoretically halves memory bandwidth requirements.

What We Built

We attempted to enable Q4_0, Q4_1, and Q8_0 quantization for both K and V cache states via the type_k and type_v parameters in llama.cpp v0.3.31.

The Research

type_k and type_v parameters accept GGML quantization type integers: 2 (Q4_0), 3 (Q4_1), 7 (Q8_0). Models must be loaded with these parameters set at initialization. We tested all three values with the qwen2vl architecture.

Results

Cache config	Result
type_k=2, type_v=2 (Q4_0)	Failed to create llama_context
type_k=3, type_v=3 (Q4_1)	Failed to create llama_context
type_k=7, type_v=7 (Q8_0)	Failed to create llama_context

All three quantization types failed. Error message: "Failed to create llama_context." This is a known limitation: the qwen2vl architecture in llama.cpp v0.3.31 does not support independent KV cache quantization. The GGUF is already Q4_K_M quantized and the KV cache cannot be further quantized without upstream support in llama.cpp.

Conclusion

KV cache quantization is not currently supported for the qwen2vl architecture in llama.cpp v0.3.31. This feature requires upstream support in the llama.cpp codebase.

Full citation: Alpasan, L.-K. (2026). KV Cache Quantization Attempt on qwen2vl Architecture. The Anticloud Research Corpus.

---

Why The Anticloud

Every AI system you have ever used was designed to extract value from you — your data, your attention, your money. The Anticloud is not a service. It is not in the cloud. It is not rentable inference. It is a fundamentally different category of infrastructure, and here is what that means in practice.

Your data never leaves your machine. We designed the system so we physically cannot access it. Access is not restricted by policy — it is structurally impossible by architecture. There is no data to steal because there is no server to steal it from.

The system is airgapped by architecture, not by configuration. It does not require a network connection to function. It was built offline, it runs offline, and it never reaches out to anyone for any reason. Connectivity is simply not a prerequisite for intelligence.

.====================================================================.
!  Made in the UAE, Dubai #DubaiIt #Dubai #Dxb #SovereignAI          !
!  Made in The Emirates #Dubai_it                                    !
!                                                                    !
!  Lois-Kleinner Alpasan - The Anticloud 2026-                       !
!                                                                    !
!  0-1.gg ! GitHub ! LinkedIn ! DEV ! GH Pages                       !
!  HuggingFace ! Blog ! Tumblr ! Fandom ! Bluesky ! Mastodon          !
!  Zenodo ! Harvard Dataverse ! Internet Archive ! ORCID              !
!                                                                    !
!  Sovereign AI ! Local-First ! Privacy ! Zero Trust ! No Datacenter !
!  Air-Gapped ! Open Source ! Rust ! Hash Chain ! Single Binary      !
!  Offline LLM ! Crypto Ledger ! P2P ! Federated                     !
'===================================================================='

Lois-Kleinner Alpasan, 22, has served executive roles spanning technology, operations, finance, and product across 20+ organizations. His cross-functional work combines architecture, business, and AI strategy.

References:

1. Lois-Kleinner Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20781790
2. Lois-Kleinner GitHub: https://github.com/kleinnner/Anticloud/tree/main/04-aioss-format
3. Lois-Kleinner Harvard DV: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/GKUDHE
4. Lois-Kleinner Internet Arc: https://archive.org/details/aioss-format
5. Lois-Kleinner ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2233-6107
6. Lois-Kleinner DEV.to: https://dev.to/kleinner
7. Lois-Kleinner LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kleinner
8. Lois-Kleinner HuggingFace: https://huggingface.co/Anticloud
9. Lois-Kleinner Tumblr: https://anticloud.tumblr.com
10. Lois-Kleinner Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@kleinner
11. Lois-Kleinner Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kleinner.bsky.social
12. 0-1.gg: https://0-1.gg