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A consequence of processing inputs chunk by chunk is the need to maintain the Key-Value (KV) cache of previously processed chunks in memory while handling subsequent ones. This requirement to hold intermediate cache states results in higher memory consumption for chunked prefilling compared to standard prefilling where the cache is built in one go.

Increased Memory Overhead in Chunked Prefilling

A system is designed to handle a very long input sequence by processing it in several smaller, sequential segments instead of all at once. This segmented approach can paradoxically lead to a higher peak memory requirement during processing. What is the fundamental reason for this increased memory overhead?

An engineer is processing a long text sequence with a large language model. They observe that processing the sequence in ten equal, sequential segments results in a higher peak memory usage than processing the entire sequence in a single operation. Explain the primary reason for this counter-intuitive observation, focusing on how intermediate computational states are managed in the segmented approach.

Memory Usage in Segmented Input Processing

Based on the principles of chunked prefilling, explain the most likely reason for this unexpectedly high peak memory consumption.

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