fix: give each translation worker its share of the CPUs

Translate runs NumCPU/2 sentence workers and each of them started
GOMAXPROCS goroutines for the logit projection of every step: on 16
cores, 128 goroutines fighting for 16 cores. The model now caps the
goroutines of a step (SetThreads, called once after Load) so that
workers x threads stays within the machine.

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -23,7 +23,9 @@ version is in the `VERSION` file.
   replacing the link.
 - Translation is faster and uses much less memory: the beam search no longer copies
   every beam's decoder state for every candidate at every step, and reuses its
-  work buffers instead of allocating new ones per layer and step.
+  work buffers instead of allocating new ones per layer and step. Each sentence
+  now uses its share of the processors, so translating a script no longer starts
+  more workers than the machine has.
 
 ## [1.4] - 2026-10-15
 

internal/marian/decode.go

@@ -212,6 +212,9 @@ func (m *Model) decodeStep(b *beam, crossK, crossV [][]float32, srcLen int, s *d
 func (m *Model) logProbs(hidden, out [][]float32) [][]float32 {
 	d, vocab := m.cfg.DModel, m.cfg.VocabSize
 	workers := runtime.GOMAXPROCS(0)
+	if m.threads > 0 {
+		workers = min(workers, m.threads)
+	}
 	chunk := (vocab + workers - 1) / workers
 	var wg sync.WaitGroup
 	for lo := 0; lo < vocab; lo += chunk {

internal/marian/model.go

@@ -60,10 +60,12 @@ type decoderLayer struct {
 	finalLayerNorm      layerNorm
 }
 
-// Model is a loaded translation model. It is read-only once loaded:
+// Model is a loaded translation model. It is read-only once loaded (but
-// Translate may be called from several goroutines at once.
+// for SetThreads, right after Load): Translate may be called from several
+// goroutines at once.
 type Model struct {
 	cfg        config
+	threads    int       // goroutines a decoding step may start (0: one per CPU)
 	embed      []float32 // vocab × d, shared by encoder, decoder and output
 	encPos     []float32 // positions × d
 	decPos     []float32
@@ -221,6 +223,13 @@ func (m *Model) bind(t map[string]tensor) error {
 	return missing
 }
 
+// SetThreads caps how many goroutines each decoding step starts (0: one
+// per CPU, the default). When several sentences are translated at once,
+// give each its share of the CPUs, or every step of every sentence starts
+// a team of goroutines and they oversubscribe the machine. It must be
+// called before the first Translate.
+func (m *Model) SetThreads(n int) { m.threads = n }
+
 // maxSourceTokens leaves room for the end-of-sentence token.
 func (m *Model) maxSourceTokens() int { return m.cfg.MaxPositions - 1 }
 

translation.go

@@ -232,10 +232,8 @@ func (a *App) Translate(doc screenplay.Document, elements []int, titlePage bool)
 	res, err := translate.Document(ctx, &doc, model, lexicon, translate.Options{
 		Elements:  elements,
 		TitlePage: titlePage,
-		// The model splits its largest product across every CPU already:
+		Workers:   translateWorkers(),
-		// half as many sentences at once keeps the machine responsive.
+		Progress:  func(done, total int) { emit(int64(done), int64(total)) },
-		Workers:  max(1, runtime.NumCPU()/2),
-		Progress: func(done, total int) { emit(int64(done), int64(total)) },
 	})
 	if errors.Is(err, context.Canceled) {
 		return nil, nil
@@ -246,6 +244,10 @@ func (a *App) Translate(doc screenplay.Document, elements []int, titlePage bool)
 	return &res, nil
 }
 
+// translateWorkers is how many sentences are translated at once: half the
+// CPUs, and each one splits its decoding steps across its share of them.
+func translateWorkers() int { return max(1, runtime.NumCPU()/2) }
+
 // translator returns the model and the dictionaries that help tell French
 // from English, loading them the first time. The load happens without
 // a.tr.mu: reading 300 MB takes seconds, and CancelTranslation must stay
@@ -271,6 +273,9 @@ func (a *App) translator(ctx context.Context) (*marian.Model, translate.Lexicon,
 		}
 		return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("loading the translation model: %w", err)
 	}
+	// Every sentence worker gets an equal share of the CPUs for its
+	// decoding steps, so workers × threads never oversubscribe the machine.
+	m.SetThreads(max(1, runtime.NumCPU()/translateWorkers()))
 	lexicon = loadLexicon()
 	a.tr.mu.Lock()
 	if ctx.Err() == nil { // cancelled while loading: cache nothing