arXiv:2609.21139v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Replacing attention in a pretrained language model is a compatibility problem: a plausible substitute may alter representations expected by later layers. TinyCeNN-LM introduces a \emph{quality-gated post-training conversion} framework using CeNN-inspired cellular-recurrent layers with bounded local processing, compact recurrent memory, routing, fusion, and accept-or-rollback validation. Three implementations are studied: Integrated Memory, MemoryFusion, and PDelta3-GDN2-CLVR+Local32. Strict PDelta3 conversion accepts a layer only when representation and NLL criteria pass fixed thresholds. On SmolLM2-135M, layers 0-2 are accepted with cumulative $\Delta\mathrm{NLL}=+0.01209$, while layer 3 is rejected despite acceptable NLL because representation fidelity fails. On Qwen3.5-0.8B, full-attention layers 3, 7, and 11 are accepted with final $\Delta\mathrm{NLL}=+0.02073$. Integrated Memory keeps perplexity within $-0.07\%$ to $+0.93\%$ while reducing total cache by up to $6.01\%$. A sampled 200-item downstream sanity check gives $28.5\%$–$32.0\%$ overall accuracy for converted Qwen releases. The results support conservative, quality-gated structural conversion rather than universal attention replacement or speedup.
Abstract: Replacing attention in a pretrained language model is a compatibility problem: a plausible substitute may alter representations expected by later layers. TinyCeNN-LM introduces a \emph{quality-gated post-training conversion} framework using CeNN-inspired cellular-recurrent layers with bounded local processing, compact recurrent memory, routing, fusion, and accept-or-rollback validation. Three implementations are studied: Integrated Memory, MemoryFusion, and PDelta3-GDN2-CLVR+Local32. Strict PDelta3 conversion accepts a layer only when representation and NLL criteria pass fixed thresholds. On SmolLM2-135M, layers 0-2 are accepted with cumulative $\Delta\mathrm{NLL}=+0.01209$, while layer 3 is rejected despite acceptable NLL because representation fidelity fails. On Qwen3.5-0.8B, full-attention layers 3, 7, and 11 are accepted with final $\Delta\mathrm{NLL}=+0.02073$. Integrated Memory keeps perplexity within $-0.07\%$ to $+0.93\%$ while reducing total cache by up to $6.01\%$. A sampled 200-item downstream sanity check gives $28.5\%$–$32.0\%$ overall accuracy for converted Qwen releases. The results support conservative, quality-gated structural conversion rather than universal attention replacement or speedup.
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