Upstream sync 23/N: merge 5ae2d38821 (76 commits, conflict-free)

[roberteg16]

Summary

Conflict-free upstream batch: the 76 commits between 81e81dac1f and 5ae2d38821 (2026-08-14 22:11 UTC .. 2026-08-17 23:30 UTC). Second half of the 151-commit clean run split at batch 22.

337 files, +14679/−5463.

Findings

Deleted files. Six across the pair, all verified as renames/consolidations rather than removals:

• tests/kernels/quantization/test_block_int8.py — removed by 7d7b6f26f4 ("[Refactor] Remove dead code for quantization", [Refactor] Remove dead code for quantization vllm-project/vllm#52221). The one CI reference that greps as a match, .buildkite/test_areas/kernels.yaml:390, points at kernels/moe/test_block_int8.py — a different, surviving file. Checked explicitly rather than assumed, since the basenames are identical.
• vllm/model_executor/warmup/v1_block_table_warmup.py — removed by 49905ad94d (new JIT warmup infrastructure, [3/N][Feat][Perf] Add new warmup infrastructure for JITs. Add provider registry and orchestration for JIT warmup vllm-project/vllm#50174); the module is fully de-registered and the warmup package now exposes the *_warmup.py provider set instead.
• .../scaled_mm/b12x_block.py, .../scaled_mm/b12x_tensor.py and their two tests — consolidated into a single .../scaled_mm/b12x.py. Confirmed the symbols still resolve: B12xTensorFP8ScaledMMLinearKernel is at b12x.py:199, no import anywhere references the deleted module paths, and the two deleted tests are superseded by tests/model_executor/kernels/test_b12x_linear.py.

The next commit, 49fb2ee348 ([ROCm][CI] add Aiter ops tests, vllm-project#52208), conflicts in vllm/_aiter_ops.py and gets its own PR.

Merge commit only — do not squash or rebase.

AI assistance was used to prepare this merge.

Test plan

• pre-commit run --all-files green on the merged tree
• All six deletions confirmed renames/consolidations; surviving symbols located by line, no dangling module paths
• Build + 6-model benchmark sweep vs the Strix Halo dashboard — no regression on transformers 5.15.0, all six within the gate (results)