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Video s3
    Details
    Presenter(s)
    Yi Sheng Chong Headshot
    Display Name
    Yi Sheng Chong
    Affiliation
    Affiliation
    Nanyang Technological University
    Country
    Country
    Singapore
    Abstract

    High performance but computationally expensive Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) require both algorithmic and custom hardware improvement to reduce model size and to improve energy efficiency for edge computing applications. Recent CNN architectures employ depthwise separable convolution to reduce the total number of weights and MAC operations. However, depthwise separable convolution workload does not run efficiently in existing CNN accelerators. This paper proposes an energy-efficient CONV unit for pointwise and depthwise operation. The CONV unit utilizes weight stationary to enable high efficiency. The row partial sum reduction is engaged to increase parallelism in pointwise convolution thereby lightening the memory requirements on output partial sums. Our design achieves a maximum efficiency of 3.17 TOPS/W at 0.85V/40nm CMOS which is well-suited for energy constrained edge computing applications.

    Slides
    • An Energy-Efficient Convolution Unit for Depthwise Separable Convolutional Neural Networks (application/pdf)