Design and Optimization of Reconfigurable Hardware Accelerators for Machine Learning.

The exponential growth of Machine Learning (ML), particularly Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), has precipitated a critical demand for hardware platforms capable of delivering high throughput and energy efficiency. As model complexity scales from millions to billions of parameters, general-purpose processors struggle to maintain efficiency due to the "von Neumann bottleneck" and excessive control overhead. While Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) offer peak efficiency, they lack the post-fabrication flexibility required to adapt to rapidly evolving model architectures and novel activation functions. This paper proposes a novel Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Architecture (CGRA) specifically optimized for ML workloads, termed Flex-Tensor. We introduce a hierarchical interconnect system designed to minimize data movement and a specialized Processing Element (PE) design that supports dynamic mixed-precision arithmetic. Furthermore, we present a compiler-assisted optimization framework that maps complex tensor operations onto the reconfigurable fabric using advanced loop tiling and systolic dataflow strategies. Simulation results demonstrate that Flex-Tensor achieves 2.4x better energy-delay product (EDP) compared to standard FPGA implementations and approaches 85% of the efficiency of fixed-function accelerators while maintaining full programmability for emerging neural network layers.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2024-09-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18016021
Primary Topic
Parallel Computing and Optimization Techniques
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Design and Optimization of Reconfigurable Hardware Accelerators for Machine Learning.

Kiran Kumar R., Pastor E, Byrareddy H C
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Parallel Computing and Optimization Techniques
article

Design and Optimization of Reconfigurable Hardware Accelerators for Machine Learning.

Kiran Kumar R., Pastor E, Byrareddy H C
article en

Abstract

The exponential growth of Machine Learning (ML), particularly Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), has precipitated a critical demand for hardware platforms capable of delivering high throughput and energy efficiency. As model complexity scales from millions to billions of parameters, general-purpose processors struggle to maintain efficiency due to the "von Neumann bottleneck" and excessive control overhead. While Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) offer peak efficiency, they lack the post-fabrication flexibility required to adapt to rapidly evolving model architectures and novel activation functions. This paper proposes a novel Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Architecture (CGRA) specifically optimized for ML workloads, termed Flex-Tensor. We introduce a hierarchical interconnect system designed to minimize data movement and a specialized Processing Element (PE) design that supports dynamic mixed-precision arithmetic. Furthermore, we present a compiler-assisted optimization framework that maps complex tensor operations onto the reconfigurable fabric using advanced loop tiling and systolic dataflow strategies. Simulation results demonstrate that Flex-Tensor achieves 2.4x better energy-delay product (EDP) compared to standard FPGA implementations and approaches 85% of the efficiency of fixed-function accelerators while maintaining full programmability for emerging neural network layers.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Government of India (IN), Government of Karnataka (IN)
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 47%
Parallel Computing and Optimization Techniques
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Design and Optimization of Reconfigurable Hardware Accelerators for Machine Learning. — Kiran Kumar R., Pastor E, et al. · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (2024) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS