diff --git a/test/mockgpu/mockgpu.py b/test/mockgpu/mockgpu.py
index 703b1932d3..a4e7797e60 100644
--- a/test/mockgpu/mockgpu.py
+++ b/test/mockgpu/mockgpu.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import ctypes, time, os, builtins, fcntl
+import ctypes, time, os, builtins, fcntl, typing
 from tinygrad.helpers import DEV
 from tinygrad.runtime.support.hcq import FileIOInterface
 from tinygrad.runtime.autogen import libc
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ start = time.perf_counter()
 
 drivers = [cls() for t in DEV.value if (cls:={"MOCKPCI+AMD": AMDriver, "MOCKKFD+AMD": AMDDriver, "MOCK+AMD": AMDDriver, "MOCKUSB+AMD": AMUSBDriver,
                                               "MOCK+NV": NVDriver}.get(f"{t.interface}+{t.device}"))]
-tracked_fds = {}
+tracked_fds: dict[int, typing.Any] = {}
 
 original_memoryview = builtins.memoryview
 class TrackedMemoryView:
diff --git a/test/null/test_llm_tokenizer.py b/test/null/test_llm_tokenizer.py
index c98fb95e4d..b9927811d1 100644
--- a/test/null/test_llm_tokenizer.py
+++ b/test/null/test_llm_tokenizer.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import unittest, base64, functools, sys
+import unittest, base64, functools, re, sys, time, unicodedata
 from tinygrad.llm.cli import SimpleTokenizer, FallbackTemplate
 from tinygrad.helpers import fetch
 
@@ -46,6 +46,29 @@ class TestLLMTokenizer(unittest.TestCase):
   def test_llama_repeat(self): self._test_coding(self.llama_tok, "00000000000000000", [ 931, 931, 931, 931, 931, 410 ])
   def test_llama_pat(self): self._test_coding(self.llama_tok, "today\n  \n", [ 31213, 14211 ])
 
+  def test_split_regex_matches_naive_listing(self):
+    # the compacted codepoint ranges must match the same text as listing every codepoint
+    def naive(pre): return "".join(re.escape(chr(cp)) for cp in range(0x323b0) if unicodedata.category(chr(cp)).startswith(pre))
+    r_ws, r_p_N, r_p_L = r"\t\n\x0b\x0c\r\x85" + naive("Z"), naive("N"), naive("L")
+    naive_re = re.compile("(?i:'s|'t|'re|'ve|'m|'ll|'d)|" +
+      f"[^\\r\\n{r_p_N}{r_p_L}]?[{r_p_L}]+|[{r_p_N}]{{1,3}}| ?[^{r_ws}{r_p_N}{r_p_L}]+[\\r\\n]*|[{r_ws}]*[\\r\\n]+|[{r_ws}]+(?![^{r_ws}])|[{r_ws}]+")
+    sample = "hello world 한국어 中文 текст ١٢٣ 123 😊\n  \ttoday\n'équivalent ²³№ "
+    self.assertEqual(SimpleTokenizer({}, {})._split_to_word.findall(sample), naive_re.findall(sample))
+
+  def test_split_regex_speed(self):
+    # the naive listing compiles a 429KB pattern that takes 10+s to match a 225KB prompt; ranges keep it small and fast
+    tok = SimpleTokenizer({}, {})
+    self.assertLess(len(tok._split_to_word.pattern), 100_000)
+    text = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. " * 5000
+    tok._split_to_word.findall(text)  # warmup
+    tms = []
+    for _ in range(5):
+      st = time.perf_counter()
+      words = tok._split_to_word.findall(text)
+      tms.append(time.perf_counter() - st)
+    self.assertLess(min(tms), 4)  # best-of-5 is robust to CI scheduling pauses; new code takes ~60ms
+    self.assertEqual(len(words), 50001)
+
   def test_tekken_from_gguf_kv(self):
     kv = {
       "tokenizer.ggml.tokens": ["<unk>", "<s>", "</s>", "[INST]", "[/INST]", "hello"],
diff --git a/tinygrad/helpers.py b/tinygrad/helpers.py
index 19ee44c2ee..fde2fb2534 100644
--- a/tinygrad/helpers.py
+++ b/tinygrad/helpers.py
@@ -412,7 +412,7 @@ def diskcache_get(table:str, key:dict|str|int) -> Any:
   if (val:=res.fetchone()) is not None: return pickle.loads(val[0])
   return None
 
-_db_tables = set()
+_db_tables: set[str] = set()
 def diskcache_put(table:str, key:dict|str|int, val:Any, prepickled=False):
   if CACHELEVEL < 1: return val
   if isinstance(key, (str,int)): key = {"key": key}
diff --git a/tinygrad/llm/cli.py b/tinygrad/llm/cli.py
index 93b6022c43..77cfac8ce2 100644
--- a/tinygrad/llm/cli.py
+++ b/tinygrad/llm/cli.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
-import sys, argparse, codecs, typing, re, unicodedata, json, time
+import sys, argparse, codecs, itertools, typing, re, unicodedata, json, time
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
 from tinygrad import nn
 from tinygrad.uop.ops import UOp, Ops
@@ -20,7 +20,11 @@ class SimpleTokenizer:
 
     # https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/blob/94933c8c2eeaa9a7983e3f6c08af76bd86724094/src/llama-vocab.cpp#L286
     # 0x323b0 is one past the max codepoint in unicode categories L/N/Z (0x323af is max L)
-    def ucat_range(pre: str): return "".join(re.escape(chr(cp)) for cp in range(0x323b0) if unicodedata.category(chr(cp)).startswith(pre))
+    # compact adjacent codepoints into ranges: listing them all makes re spend seconds on large prompts
+    def ucat_range(pre:str) -> str:
+      cps = enumerate(cp for cp in range(0x323b0) if unicodedata.category(chr(cp)).startswith(pre))
+      runs = [list(g) for _, g in itertools.groupby(cps, lambda e: e[1]-e[0])]
+      return "".join(re.escape(chr(g[0][1])) + (f"-{re.escape(chr(g[-1][1]))}" if len(g) > 1 else "") for g in runs)
     r_ws, r_p_N, r_p_L = r"\t\n\x0b\x0c\r\x85" + ucat_range("Z"), ucat_range("N"), ucat_range("L")
     self._split_to_word = re.compile("(?i:'s|'t|'re|'ve|'m|'ll|'d)|" + \
       f"[^\\r\\n{r_p_N}{r_p_L}]?[{r_p_L}]+|[{r_p_N}]{{1,3}}| ?[^{r_ws}{r_p_N}{r_p_L}]+[\\r\\n]*|[{r_ws}]*[\\r\\n]+|[{r_ws}]+(?![^{r_ws}])|[{r_ws}]+")
diff --git a/tinygrad/runtime/ops_qcom.py b/tinygrad/runtime/ops_qcom.py
index b2a1b28aa3..8fed9fdb9b 100644
--- a/tinygrad/runtime/ops_qcom.py
+++ b/tinygrad/runtime/ops_qcom.py
@@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ class QCOMProgram(HCQProgram):
   def _parse_lib(self, lib):
     # Extract image binary
     self.image_size = _read_lib(lib, 0x100)
-    self.image = bytearray(lib[(image_offset:=_read_lib(lib, 0xc0)):image_offset+self.image_size])
+    self.image = lib[(image_offset:=_read_lib(lib, 0xc0)):image_offset+self.image_size]
 
     # Parse image descriptors
     image_desc_off = _read_lib(lib, 0x110)