CNS Core: Small: CNN-Accelerator Co-Design

CNS 核心：小型：CNN 加速器协同设计

• 批准号: 2216746
• 负责人: Niraj Jha
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2216746&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CNS; Core; Small; CNN; Accelerator

Recently, automated co-design of machine learning (ML) models and accelerator architectures has attracted significant attention from both the industry and academia. However, most co-design frameworks explore a limited search space. Furthermore, training the ML model and simulating the accelerator performance are computationally expensive. To address these limitations, this project proposes a convolutional neural network (CNN) and hardware-accelerator co-design framework. It will consist of two new benchmarking sub-frameworks, CNNBench and AccelBench, that will explore vastly expanded design spaces of CNNs and CNN accelerators. CNNBench will use a new search technique to converge to the optimal CNN architecture. AccelBench will perform cycle-accurate simulations for a diverse set of accelerator architectures in a vast design space. Values for a large number of hyperparameters need to be chosen while designing an accelerator for a given application. They include the number and size of processing elements and on-chip buffers, dataflow, main memory size and type, and those for many domain-specific modules like sparsity-aware computation and reduced-precision designs. Similarly, many hyperparameters come into play while designing a CNN as well: the number of layers, convolution type and size, normalization type, pooling type and size, structure of the final multi-layer perceptron head, activation function, training recipe, and many more. At the same time, a CNN architecture that has the highest performance may not meet resource constraints like energy consumption and memory footprint. The proposed co-design framework will efficiently navigate the joint CNN-accelerator design space for the target application under given user constraints. THe project expects at least an order of magnitude efficiency improvement in navigating this space relative to current baselines while delivering higher performance. Given the importance of the CNN-accelerator co-design problem to the industry, the proposed co-design framework will likely have a transformative impact on it. To effectively transfer research results, the project plans to continue our active industrial engagements. The project will recruit graduate/undergraduate female/minority students (the PI has supervised 15 female Ph.D. students so far as well as many female/minority undergraduate and high-school students). The project will ensure that the participants, including the broader public engaged through outreach, experience the interdisciplinary nature of the research. The research outcomes will be included in two undergraduate courses on Machine Learning and Embedded Computing. Outreach to high-school students is planned through Princeton Laboratory Learning Program. Broad dissemination to the academic and industrial communities will be achieved through published papers, posters, and seminars. In addition, various tools and models will be distributed online.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

最近，机器学习（ML）模型和加速器架构的自动化协同设计引起了业界和学术界的极大关注。 然而，大多数协同设计框架探索的搜索空间有限。此外，训练机器学习模型和模拟加速器性能的计算成本很高。为了解决这些限制，该项目提出了卷积神经网络（CNN）和硬件加速器协同设计框架。它将由两个新的基准测试子框架 CNNBench 和 AccelBench 组成，将探索 CNN 和 CNN 加速器的极大扩展的设计空间。 CNNBench 将使用新的搜索技术来收敛到最优的 CNN 架构。 AccelBench 将为广阔的设计空间中的各种加速器架构执行周期精确的仿真。在为给定应用程序设计加速器时，需要选择大量超参数的值。它们包括处理元件和片上缓冲区的数量和大小、数据流、主存储器大小和类型，以及许多特定领域模块（如稀疏感知计算和降低精度设计）的数量和大小。 同样，许多超参数在设计 CNN 时也会发挥作用：层数、卷积类型和大小、归一化类型、池化类型和大小、最终多层感知器头的结构、激活函数、训练配方等等更多的。 同时，具有最高性能的 CNN 架构可能无法满足能源消耗和内存占用等资源限制。所提出的协同设计框架将在给定的用户约束下有效地导航目标应用程序的 CNN 加速器联合设计空间。 该项目预计相对于当前基线，在该领域的导航效率至少提高一个数量级，同时提供更高的性能。 鉴于 CNN 加速器协同设计问题对行业的重要性，所提出的协同设计框架可能会对其产生变革性影响。 为了有效地转移研究成果，该项目计划继续我们积极的工业参与。 该项目将招收研究生/本科生女/少数民族学生（目前PI已指导15名女博士生以及多名女/少数民族本科生和高中生）。该项目将确保参与者，包括通过外展参与的更广泛的公众，体验该研究的跨学科性质。研究成果将包含在机器学习和嵌入式计算两门本科课程中。计划通过普林斯顿实验室学习计划向高中生进行推广。 将通过发表论文、海报和研讨会来向学术界和工业界广泛传播。此外，各种工具和模型将在线分发。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。