SEADA: An efficient methodology for optimizing mixed-precision DNNs on multi-precision spatial architectures

Mixed-precision computation has been introduced in deep neural networks (DNNs) as an effective approach to reduce latency, energy consumption, and memory footprint.

However, efficiently mapping mixed-precision networks onto multi-precision spatial architectures poses several challenges.

These include determining the appropriate precision for each layer, balancing layer-wise accuracy sensitivity to quantization against architectural heterogeneity and system-level constraints, and accurately estimating the system-level cost of heterogeneous precision assignments.

This work presents SEADA, an efficient methodology designed to address these challenges.

SEADA comprises: (i) a configurable system-level analytical cost model of a multi-precision spatial accelerator architecture; (ii) a fast mapping tool that identifies near-optimal mappings of DNN workloads onto the target integer accelerator; (iii) analytical models for floating-point layers to estimate the overall benefits of mixed-precision execution; and (iv) a per-layer precision selection methodology based on bit-level entropy, enabling efficient assignment across multiple numerical precisions.

SEADA's efficiency provides designers with a robust framework for the design-space exploration of multi-precision architectures.