arXiv Computation and Language
Oct 22

Understanding Target Probability Reuse in Speculative Decoding

The paper investigates how target model probability distributions can be reused during speculative decoding to improve token selection. It shows that exact reuse requires a distribution computed with the full next-round context, and that retaining this distribution can force the rejection of accepted tokens. Experiments across six target models demonstrate that reranking first-token branches with a separately computed distribution at the current context boosts expected acceptance, especially with small tree budgets, and that drawing the first token from this distribution before tree allocation further improves acceptance and decoding speed.

By Jungseob Lee, Giyoon Jang, Chailin Nam, Jiwoo Kum, Sihyeon Lee, Kyojun Choo, Jihun Song, Eunseo Song, Chanjun Park
arXiv Computation and Language
Oct 21

When Does Better Acceptance Pay? A Controlled Study of Speculative Decoding

arXiv:2610.24993v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: The throughput gains of speculative decoding depend on the trade-off between acceptance length and execution latency. We ask when additional accept...

By Yongchao Long, Chunrui Zheng, Yuxuan Zhou, Guangkun Nie, Tian-Chi Ma, Chao Pang, Shuohuan Wang, Yuchen Ding, Xianbin Wen, Dianhai Yu, Junyuan Shang, Yuxi Zhou, Shenda Hong