even better more structured throughput scheduling

plot adjustments
validation adjustments

validation/README.md

@@ -82,9 +82,21 @@ for measurement windows, power, and energy interpretation.
 
 Functional compilation/output comparison determines PASS/FAIL. Performance
 failures show `ERROR` without changing a functional PASS; explicit unsupported
-operations show `UNSUPPORTED`. Pimsim's `vsoftmax` is unsupported.
+operations show `UNSUPPORTED`. Pimsim-nn omits `vsoftmax` timing and energy;
+the functional simulator still executes Softmax.
 Skipped measurements remain visibly skipped.
 
+Floating-point validation requires both checks for each output:
+
+- Every element satisfies `abs(actual - reference) <= threshold + relative_threshold * abs(reference)`.
+- For a nonzero reference, `norm(actual - reference) / norm(reference) <= relative_threshold`, using the L2 norm.
+
+The second check prevents a large absolute tolerance from accepting a lost small output.
+It does not replace or weaken the elementwise check. Set `--relative-threshold=0` for absolute-only floating-point comparison.
+Zero references use the absolute check. Integer and Boolean outputs require exact agreement.
+Nonfinite values and mismatched output shapes or counts fail validation.
+Reports show maximum absolute differences and relative L2 errors.
+
 Exit codes: `0` for all models passing or successful cleanup; `1` for validation
 failure, an invalid model directory, or no ONNX files; `2` for invalid arguments.