diff --git a/MaxText/pp_sandbox.py b/MaxText/pp_sandbox.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9a6b3aa8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/MaxText/pp_sandbox.py
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+"""
+Copyright 2024 Google LLC
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+"""
+
+import os
+from absl import app
+import jax
+from jax.sharding import Mesh
+from typing import Sequence
+import random
+
+import pyconfig
+
+
+from layers import pipeline, simple_layer
+import jax
+from jax import numpy as jnp
+from jax.sharding import Mesh
+
+import common_types
+import max_utils
+
+import jax.numpy as jnp
+import tensorflow as tf
+import string
+import datetime
+
+
+def get_inputs(batch_size, sequence, features):
+    """Get random inputs, and random dummy targets
+    Returns
+        inputs: [batch_size, sequence, features]
+        targets: [batch_size, sequence, features]
+        positions: [batch_size, sequence]
+        segmentations: [batch_size, segmentation]
+    """
+    input_shape = [batch_size, sequence, features]
+    inputs = jax.random.normal(jax.random.PRNGKey(2), input_shape, dtype=jnp.float32)
+
+    # dummy targets same shape as inputs to use for a dummy loss function to check gradient correctness
+    dummy_targets = jax.random.normal(jax.random.PRNGKey(3), input_shape, dtype=jnp.float32)
+
+    inputs_position = jnp.array([jnp.arange(sequence, dtype=jnp.int32) for _ in range(batch_size)], dtype=jnp.int32)
+    inputs_segmentation = jnp.ones((batch_size, sequence), dtype=jnp.int32)
+    return inputs, dummy_targets, inputs_position, inputs_segmentation
+
+# Create a dummy scalar loss function so we may take the gradient wrt weights
+def pipeline_parallelism_dummy_loss(
+    params, pipeline, inputs, inputs_position, inputs_segmentation, deterministic, model_mode, dummy_targets
+):
+    outputs = pipeline.apply(params, inputs, inputs_position, inputs_segmentation, deterministic, model_mode)
+    loss = jnp.linalg.norm(outputs - dummy_targets)
+    return loss
+
+def simple_timeit(f, *args, tries=10, task=None):
+  """Simple utility to time a function for multiple runs"""
+  assert task is not None
+
+  trace_name = f"t_{task}_" + "".join(random.choice(string.ascii_uppercase + string.digits) for _ in range(10))
+  trace_dir = f"gs://mattdavidow-br/{trace_name}"
+
+  outcomes_ms = []
+  jax.block_until_ready(f(*args))  # warm it up!
+  jax.profiler.start_trace(trace_dir)
+
+  for _ in range(tries):
+    s = datetime.datetime.now()
+    jax.block_until_ready(f(*args))
+    e = datetime.datetime.now()
+    outcomes_ms.append(1000 * (e - s).total_seconds())
+  jax.profiler.stop_trace()
+
+  average_time_ms = sum(outcomes_ms) / len(outcomes_ms)
+  print(f"{task}: average time milliseconds: {average_time_ms:.2f}, trace {trace_dir}")
+  return average_time_ms
+
+def main(argv: Sequence[str]):
+    jax.config.update("jax_default_prng_impl", "unsafe_rbg")
+    tf.config.set_visible_devices([], "GPU")
+    os.environ["TF_CPP_MIN_LOG_LEVEL"] = "0"
+    if "xla_tpu_spmd_rng_bit_generator_unsafe" not in os.environ.get("LIBTPU_INIT_ARGS", ""):
+        os.environ["LIBTPU_INIT_ARGS"] = os.environ.get("LIBTPU_INIT_ARGS", "") + " --xla_tpu_spmd_rng_bit_generator_unsafe=true"
+    pyconfig.initialize(argv)
+    config = pyconfig.config
+
+    devices_array = max_utils.create_device_mesh(config)
+    mesh = Mesh(devices_array, config.mesh_axes)
+
+    inputs, dummy_targets, inputs_position, inputs_segmentation = get_inputs(
+    config.global_batch_size_to_train_on, config.max_target_length, config.emb_dim
+    )
+    deterministic = True
+    model_mode = common_types.MODEL_MODE_TRAIN
+    # We use a simpler single matmul decoder layer for fast compilation in these tests.
+    #single_pipeline_stage = simple_layer.SimpleDecoderLayer(config=config, mesh=mesh)
+    single_pipeline_stage = simple_layer.SimpleMlpDecoderLayer(config=config, mesh=mesh)
+    my_pipeline = pipeline.Pipeline(config=config, layers=single_pipeline_stage, mesh=mesh)
+    init_pipeline_params = my_pipeline.init(
+    jax.random.PRNGKey(0), inputs, inputs_position, inputs_segmentation, deterministic, model_mode
+    )
+
+    # This only computes the loss, e.g. only the forward pass. To get the backward pass we should call jax.value_and_grad
+    jit_dummy_loss_fn=jax.jit(pipeline_parallelism_dummy_loss, static_argnums=(1,5,6))
+    simple_timeit(jit_dummy_loss_fn, init_pipeline_params, my_pipeline, inputs, inputs_position, inputs_segmentation, deterministic, model_mode, dummy_targets, task='simple_pp')
+    
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+  app.run(main)
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