What is the difference between cute::Tensor::element_type and cute::Tensor::value_type?

[hyhieu]

The question is specifically about this code snippet:

cutlass/include/cute/tensor.hpp

Lines 110 to 113 in ffa34e7

	using iterator = typename Engine::iterator;
	using value_type = typename Engine::value_type;
	using element_type = typename Engine::element_type;
	using reference = typename Engine::reference;

But I do also see element_type and value_type coming up at other contexts in CuTe and CUTLASS. Is there a general guidelines what they mean?

Thanks!

[hwu36]

@thakkarV

[thakkarV]

Usually they are the same but there are cases where they need not be. Value type is the logical value the tensor stores. Element type is the underlying physical storage for it.