The full checkpoint stores the table as BF16 (320-byte rows, 102.4 GB), the source of record; the engine gets it as
IQ4_NL (about 8% off per row) or FP8. A bfloat16 is the top half of a float32, so widening is a shift: exact for
every value, no rounding and no scale. One entry in the PLE format list (type BF16, self-describing: no scale, no
metadata) and bf16_dequant_row; the direct reader takes the 320-byte row like any other width, and
PLE_ROW_BYTES_MAX is 320.
ple_reader_test checks the widening is exact over the patterns a lossy path breaks on (subnormals, +-inf, both NaNs);
the generic every-format test covers a synthetic BF16 GGUF through both readers.
Not in this commit: the PR's rename of tools/ple_fp8_pack.py (nothing needs it) and any setup option. Whether a
table format other than IQ4_NL is worth offering is a quality question (see the measurement in the 0.1.40 notes).
Ported by the maintainer from constantindjonkam's PR #586.
Constantin
cb87a62e82