Numerical Superoptimization for Library Learning
Numerical software depends on fast, accurate implementations of mathematical primitives like sin, exp, and log. Modern superoptimizers can optimize floating-point kernels against a given set of such primitives, but a more fundamental question remains open: which new primitives are worth implementing in the first place? We formulate this as numerical library learning: given a workload of floating-point kernels, identify the mathematical primitives whose expert implementations would most improve speed and accuracy. Our key insight is that numerical superoptimizers already have the machinery well-suited to this problem. Their search procedures happen to enumerate candidate primitives, their equivalence procedures can generalize and deduplicate candidates, and their cost models can estimate counterfactual utility: how much the workload would improve if a given primitive were available. We present GrowLibm, which repurposes the Herbie superoptimizer as a numerical library learner. GrowLibm mines candidate primitives from the superoptimizer's intermediate search results, ranks them by counterfactual utility, and prunes redundant candidates. Across three scientific applications (PROJ, CoolProp, and Basilisk), GrowLibm identifies compact, reusable primitives that can be implemented effectively using standard numerical techniques. When Herbie is extended with these expert implementations, kernel speed improves by up to 2.2x at fixed accuracy, and maximum achievable accuracy also improves, in one case from 56.0% to 93.5%. We also prototype an LLVM matcher that recognizes learned primitives in optimized IR, recovering 26 replacement sites across five PROJ projections and improving end-to-end application performance by up to 5%.