# Release Note

A release provides a stable snapshot of the codebase and is the formal announcement to the
community of new features, completed improvements, and changes that may affect users
(including breaking changes).

```{note}
Triton-distributed-ascend has not yet published a stable release. The project is built from
source; see [Build from Source](build.md). The tables below record the versioning and
branch policy, and will be filled in as releases are published.
```

## Release Compatibility Matrix

The following is the release compatibility matrix for Triton-distributed-ascend versions:

| Triton-distributed-ascend Version | Python Version | Hardware Platform | Hardware Product |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| _unreleased_ | >=3.8 | Ascend NPU | A2/A3, Ascend 950 |

## Release Schedule

The following is the Triton-distributed-ascend release schedule. Patch releases are
optional.

| Major Version | Release Branch Cut Date | Release Date | Patch Release Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| — | — | — | — |

## Release Highlights

Release highlights are added here as versions are published. Each entry should summarize the
key features, known limitations, and any migration steps required.

### Unreleased

**Current development state**

The project currently targets Atlas A2/A3 and Ascend 950, and is built from source against
CANN 9.1.0 or later.

#### Key Features

1. **Distributed communication primitives**

   - AllReduce, AllGather, ReduceScatter, and All2All

2. **Computation-communication overlap**

   - Overlapped execution of computation and communication

3. **AscendNPU IR-based compiler optimizations**

   - Optimizations that target Ascend hardware features directly

4. **Python-friendly interfaces**

   - Python APIs that integrate into existing deep learning frameworks

#### Known Limitations

1. **Distribution**: No binary distribution is published; installation is from source only
2. **Hardware coverage**: Validated on Atlas A2 and Ascend 950

## Release Strategy

### Version Numbering

Triton-distributed-ascend follows the [PEP 440](https://peps.python.org/pep-0440/)
versioning specification: `vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH[rcN][.postN]`

- **MAJOR.MINOR**: Tracks the Triton version the project is based on
- **PATCH**: Used for bug fixes or improvements at the `MAJOR.MINOR` level
- **rcN**: Release candidates, published as needed for early community testing and feedback
- **postN**: Post-releases, published as needed to fix issues in stable releases

### Branch Strategy

- The `master` branch is the latest development branch
- A release branch is created for each release (for example, `release/3.2.2`)
- Feature development should be done in a fork of the repository and merged via pull request

### Maintenance Branches and Lifecycle

Maintenance branch statuses:

- **Active**: Continuously accepts bug fixes, feature improvements, and security patches
- **Maintenance**: Only accepts critical bug fixes and security patches; no feature
  improvements are released
- **End of Life**: No fixes are accepted; maintenance of the branch has stopped

| Branch | Status | Release | End of Maintenance |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `master` | Active | / | / |
| `release/3.2.2` | Active | — | / |

## Release Cycle

- **Stable releases**: Released according to the project's version cadence
- **rc releases**: Released for early user testing ahead of a stable release
- **post releases**: Published as needed to fix issues in existing stable releases

### Release Timeline

| Date | Event |
| --- | --- |
| — | — |

## Version Compatibility Matrix

Each published release records the dependency versions it was built and validated against:

| Triton-distributed-ascend | Python | CANN | PyTorch | torch_npu |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| _unreleased_ | >=3.8 | 9.1.0 | 2.7.1 | 2.7.1.post8 |

The values in the unreleased row are the versions pinned in `requirements.txt` and stated in
[Installation](installation.md).