Bridging Quantization and Deployment: A Fixed-Point Workflow for FPGA Accelerators

Deploying deep learning models on resource-constrained hardware like Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) remains challenging despite advancements in quantization techniques, which often fail to map optimally to target hardware. This study proposes an end-to-end workflow for fixed-point quantization targeting FPGA accelerators, integrating hardware emulation within quantization-aware training to bridge software-hardware co-design. This ensures quantized models are optimized for real-world deployment. Evaluations on CIFAR-10 and ImageNet datasets using ResNet and VGG models show competitive performance, with up to 2% improvement in accuracy over state-of-the-art methods. This work provides insights to resolve the discrepancies that often occur between software-based quantization and hardware deployment. Our methodology effectively bridges quantization and deployment, providing a practical solution for edge device applications.