Although weight and activation quantization is an effective approach for Deep Neural Network (DNN) compression and has a lot of potentials to increase inference speed leveraging bit-operations, there is still a noticeable gap in terms of prediction accuracy between the quantized model and the full-precision model. To address this gap, we propose to jointly train a quantized, bit-operation-compatible DNN and its associated quantizers, as opposed to using fixed, handcrafted quantization schemes such as uniform or logarithmic quantization. Our method for learning the quantizers applies to both network weights and activations with arbitrary-bit precision, and our quantizers are easy to train. The comprehensive experiments on CIFAR-10 and ImageNet datasets show that our method works consistently well for various network structures such as AlexNet, VGG-Net, GoogLeNet, ResNet, and DenseNet, surpassing previous quantization methods in terms of accuracy by an appreciable margin. Code available at https://github.com/Microsoft/LQ-Nets

We introduce a method to train Quantized Neural Networks (QNNs) -neural networks with extremely low precision (e.g., 1-bit) weights and activations, at run-time. At traintime the quantized weights and activations are used for computing the parameter gradients. During the forward pass, QNNs drastically reduce memory size and accesses, and replace most arithmetic operations with bit-wise operations. As a result, power consumption is expected to be drastically reduced. We trained QNNs over the MNIST, CIFAR-10, SVHN and ImageNet datasets. The resulting QNNs achieve prediction accuracy comparable to their 32-bit counterparts. For example, our quantized version of AlexNet with 1-bit weights and 2-bit activations achieves 51% top-1 accuracy. Moreover, we quantize the parameter gradients to 6-bits as well which enables gradients computation using only bit-wise operation. Quantized recurrent neural networks were tested over the Penn Treebank dataset, and achieved comparable accuracy as their 32-bit counterparts using only 4-bits. Last but not least, we programmed a binary matrix multiplication GPU kernel with which it is possible to run our MNIST QNN 7 times faster than with an unoptimized GPU kernel, without suffering any loss in classification accuracy. The QNN code is available online.

We propose two efficient approximations to standard convolutional neural networks: Binary-Weight-Networks and XNOR-Networks. In Binary-Weight-Networks, the filters are approximated with binary values resulting in 32× memory saving. In XNOR-Networks, both the filters and the input to convolutional layers are binary. XNOR-Networks approximate convolutions using primarily binary operations. This results in 58× faster convolutional operations (in terms of number of the high precision operations) and 32× memory savings. XNOR-Nets offer the possibility of running state-of-the-art networks on CPUs (rather than GPUs) in real-time. Our binary networks are simple, accurate, efficient, and work on challenging visual tasks. We evaluate our approach on the ImageNet classification task. The classification accuracy with a Binary-Weight-Network version of AlexNet is the same as the full-precision AlexNet. We compare our method with recent network binarization methods, BinaryConnect and BinaryNets, and outperform these methods by large margins on ImageNet, more than 16% in top-1 accuracy. Our code is available at: http://allenai.org/plato/xnornet.

模型二进制化是一种压缩神经网络并加速其推理过程的有效方法。但是，1位模型和32位模型之间仍然存在显着的性能差距。实证研究表明，二进制会导致前进和向后传播中的信息损失。我们提出了一个新颖的分布敏感信息保留网络（DIR-NET），该网络通过改善内部传播和引入外部表示，将信息保留在前后传播中。 DIR-NET主要取决于三个技术贡献：（1）最大化二进制（IMB）的信息：最小化信息损失和通过重量平衡和标准化同时同时使用权重/激活的二进制误差； （2）分布敏感的两阶段估计器（DTE）：通过共同考虑更新能力和准确的梯度来通过分配敏感的软近似来保留梯度的信息； （3）代表性二进制 - 意识蒸馏（RBD）：通过提炼完整精确和二元化网络之间的表示来保留表示信息。 DIR-NET从统一信息的角度研究了BNN的前进过程和后退过程，从而提供了对网络二进制机制的新见解。我们的DIR-NET中的三种技术具有多功能性和有效性，可以在各种结构中应用以改善BNN。关于图像分类和客观检测任务的综合实验表明，我们的DIR-NET始终优于主流和紧凑型体系结构（例如Resnet，vgg，vgg，EfficityNet，darts和mobilenet）下最新的二进制方法。此外，我们在现实世界中的资源有限设备上执行DIR-NET，该设备可实现11.1倍的存储空间和5.4倍的速度。

Although considerable progress has been obtained in neural network quantization for efficient inference, existing methods are not scalable to heterogeneous devices as one dedicated model needs to be trained, transmitted, and stored for one specific hardware setting, incurring considerable costs in model training and maintenance. In this paper, we study a new vertical-layered representation of neural network weights for encapsulating all quantized models into a single one. With this representation, we can theoretically achieve any precision network for on-demand service while only needing to train and maintain one model. To this end, we propose a simple once quantization-aware training (QAT) scheme for obtaining high-performance vertical-layered models. Our design incorporates a cascade downsampling mechanism which allows us to obtain multiple quantized networks from one full precision source model by progressively mapping the higher precision weights to their adjacent lower precision counterparts. Then, with networks of different bit-widths from one source model, multi-objective optimization is employed to train the shared source model weights such that they can be updated simultaneously, considering the performance of all networks. By doing this, the shared weights will be optimized to balance the performance of different quantized models, thus making the weights transferable among different bit widths. Experiments show that the proposed vertical-layered representation and developed once QAT scheme are effective in embodying multiple quantized networks into a single one and allow one-time training, and it delivers comparable performance as that of quantized models tailored to any specific bit-width. Code will be available.

While machine learning is traditionally a resource intensive task, embedded systems, autonomous navigation, and the vision of the Internet of Things fuel the interest in resource-efficient approaches. These approaches aim for a carefully chosen trade-off between performance and resource consumption in terms of computation and energy. The development of such approaches is among the major challenges in current machine learning research and key to ensure a smooth transition of machine learning technology from a scientific environment with virtually unlimited computing resources into everyday's applications. In this article, we provide an overview of the current state of the art of machine learning techniques facilitating these real-world requirements. In particular, we focus on deep neural networks (DNNs), the predominant machine learning models of the past decade. We give a comprehensive overview of the vast literature that can be mainly split into three non-mutually exclusive categories: (i) quantized neural networks, (ii) network pruning, and (iii) structural efficiency. These techniques can be applied during training or as post-processing, and they are widely used to reduce the computational demands in terms of memory footprint, inference speed, and energy efficiency. We also briefly discuss different concepts of embedded hardware for DNNs and their compatibility with machine learning techniques as well as potential for energy and latency reduction. We substantiate our discussion with experiments on well-known benchmark datasets using compression techniques (quantization, pruning) for a set of resource-constrained embedded systems, such as CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs. The obtained results highlight the difficulty of finding good trade-offs between resource efficiency and predictive performance.

用于压缩神经网络的非均匀量化策略通常实现的性能比其对应于对应物，即统一的策略，因为其优越的代表性能力。然而，许多非均匀量化方法在实现不均匀量化的权重/激活时忽略了复杂的投影过程，这在硬件部署中引起了不可忽略的时间和空间开销。在这项研究中，我们提出了非均匀致均匀的量化（N2UQ），一种方法，其能够保持非均匀方法的强表示能力，同时硬件友好且有效地作为模型推理的均匀量化。我们通过学习灵活的等距输入阈值来实现这一目标，以更好地拟合潜在的分布，同时将这些实值输入量化为等距输出电平。要使用可学习的输入阈值训练量化网络，我们将广义直通估计器（G-STE）介绍，用于难以应答的后向衍生计算W.r.t.阈值参数。此外，我们考虑熵保持正则化，以进一步降低重量量化的信息损失。即使在这种不利约束的施加均匀量化的重量和激活的情况下，我们的N2UQ也经历了最先进的非均匀量化方法，在想象中达到了0.7〜1.8％，展示了N2UQ设计的贡献。代码将公开可用。

Adder Neural Network (AdderNet) provides a new way for developing energy-efficient neural networks by replacing the expensive multiplications in convolution with cheaper additions (i.e.l1-norm). To achieve higher hardware efficiency, it is necessary to further study the low-bit quantization of AdderNet. Due to the limitation that the commutative law in multiplication does not hold in l1-norm, the well-established quantization methods on convolutional networks cannot be applied on AdderNets. Thus, the existing AdderNet quantization techniques propose to use only one shared scale to quantize both the weights and activations simultaneously. Admittedly, such an approach can keep the commutative law in the l1-norm quantization process, while the accuracy drop after low-bit quantization cannot be ignored. To this end, we first thoroughly analyze the difference on distributions of weights and activations in AdderNet and then propose a new quantization algorithm by redistributing the weights and the activations. Specifically, the pre-trained full-precision weights in different kernels are clustered into different groups, then the intra-group sharing and inter-group independent scales can be adopted. To further compensate the accuracy drop caused by the distribution difference, we then develop a lossless range clamp scheme for weights and a simple yet effective outliers clamp strategy for activations. Thus, the functionality of full-precision weights and the representation ability of full-precision activations can be fully preserved. The effectiveness of the proposed quantization method for AdderNet is well verified on several benchmarks, e.g., our 4-bit post-training quantized adder ResNet-18 achieves an 66.5% top-1 accuracy on the ImageNet with comparable energy efficiency, which is about 8.5% higher than that of the previous AdderNet quantization methods.

混合精确的深神经网络达到了硬件部署所需的能源效率和吞吐量，尤其是在资源有限的情况下，而无需牺牲准确性。但是，不容易找到保留精度的最佳每层钻头精度，尤其是在创建巨大搜索空间的大量模型，数据集和量化技术中。为了解决这一困难，最近出现了一系列文献，并且已经提出了一些实现有希望的准确性结果的框架。在本文中，我们首先总结了文献中通常使用的量化技术。然后，我们对混合精液框架进行了彻底的调查，该调查是根据其优化技术进行分类的，例如增强学习和量化技术，例如确定性舍入。此外，讨论了每个框架的优势和缺点，我们在其中呈现并列。我们最终为未来的混合精液框架提供了指南。

本文研究了重量和激活都将二进制神经网络（BNN）二进制为1位值，从而大大降低了记忆使用率和计算复杂性。由于现代深层神经网络具有复杂的设计，具有复杂的架构，其准确性，因此权重和激活分布的多样性非常高。因此，传统的符号函数不能很好地用于有效地在BNN中进行全精度值。为此，我们提出了一种称为Adabin的简单而有效的方法，可自适应获得最佳的二进制集$ \ {b_1，b_2 \} $（$ b_1，b_1，b_2 \ in \ mathbb {r} $）的重量和激活而不是固定集（即$ \ { - 1，+1 \} $）。通过这种方式，提出的方法可以更好地拟合不同的分布，并提高二进制特征的表示能力。实际上，我们使用中心位置和1位值的距离来定义新的二进制量化函数。对于权重，我们提出了一种均衡方法，将对称分布的对称中心与实价分布相对，并最大程度地减少它们的kullback-leibler差异。同时，我们引入了一种基于梯度的优化方法，以获取这两个激活参数，这些参数以端到端的方式共同训练。基准模型和数据集的实验结果表明，拟议的Adabin能够实现最新性能。例如，我们使用RESNET-18体系结构在Imagenet上获得66.4 \％TOP-1的精度，并使用SSD300获得了Pascal VOC的69.4映射。

卷积神经网络（CNN）的量化是缓解CNN部署的计算负担，尤其是在低资源边缘设备上的常见方法。但是，对于神经网络所涉及的计算类型，固定点算术并不是自然的。在这项工作中，我们探索了使用基于PDE的观点和分析来改善量化CNN的方法。首先，我们利用总变化方法（电视）方法将边缘意识平滑应用于整个网络的特征图。这旨在减少值分布的异常值并促进零件恒定图，这更适合量化。其次，我们考虑用于图像分类的常见CNN的对称和稳定变体，以及用于图源分类的图形卷积网络（GCN）。我们通过几个实验证明，正向稳定性的性质保留了在不同量化速率下网络的作用。结果，稳定的量化网络的行为与非量化的网络相似，即使它们依赖于较少的参数。我们还发现，有时，稳定性甚至有助于提高准确性。对于敏感，资源受限，低功率或实时应用（例如自动驾驶），这些属性特别感兴趣。

我们日常生活中的深度学习是普遍存在的，包括自驾车，虚拟助理，社交网络服务，医疗服务，面部识别等，但是深度神经网络在训练和推理期间需要大量计算资源。该机器学习界主要集中在模型级优化（如深度学习模型的架构压缩），而系统社区则专注于实施级别优化。在其间，在算术界中提出了各种算术级优化技术。本文在模型，算术和实施级技术方面提供了关于资源有效的深度学习技术的调查，并确定了三种不同级别技术的资源有效的深度学习技术的研究差距。我们的调查基于我们的资源效率度量定义，阐明了较低级别技术的影响，并探讨了资源有效的深度学习研究的未来趋势。

模型量化已成为加速深度学习推理的不可或缺的技术。虽然研究人员继续推动量化算法的前沿，但是现有量化工作通常是不可否认的和不可推销的。这是因为研究人员不选择一致的训练管道并忽略硬件部署的要求。在这项工作中，我们提出了模型量化基准（MQBench），首次尝试评估，分析和基准模型量化算法的再现性和部署性。我们为实际部署选择多个不同的平台，包括CPU，GPU，ASIC，DSP，并在统一培训管道下评估广泛的最新量化算法。 MQBENCK就像一个连接算法和硬件的桥梁。我们进行全面的分析，并找到相当大的直观或反向直观的见解。通过对齐训练设置，我们发现现有的算法在传统的学术轨道上具有大致相同的性能。虽然用于硬件可部署量化，但有一个巨大的精度差距，仍然不稳定。令人惊讶的是，没有现有的算法在MQBench中赢得每一项挑战，我们希望这项工作能够激发未来的研究方向。

由于神经网络变得更加强大，因此在现实世界中部署它们的愿望是一个上升的愿望;然而，神经网络的功率和准确性主要是由于它们的深度和复杂性，使得它们难以部署，尤其是在资源受限的设备中。最近出现了神经网络量化，以满足这种需求通过降低网络的精度来降低神经网络的大小和复杂性。具有较小和更简单的网络，可以在目标硬件的约束中运行神经网络。本文调查了在过去十年中开发的许多神经网络量化技术。基于该调查和神经网络量化技术的比较，我们提出了该地区的未来研究方向。

为了以计算有效的方式部署深层模型，经常使用模型量化方法。此外，由于新的硬件支持混合的位算术操作，最近对混合精度量化（MPQ）的研究开始通过搜索网络中不同层和模块的优化位低宽，从而完全利用表示的能力。但是，先前的研究主要是在使用强化学习，神经体系结构搜索等的昂贵方案中搜索MPQ策略，或者简单地利用部分先验知识来进行位于刻度分配，这可能是有偏见和优势的。在这项工作中，我们提出了一种新颖的随机量化量化（SDQ）方法，该方法可以在更灵活，更全球优化的空间中自动学习MPQ策略，并具有更平滑的梯度近似。特别是，可区分的位宽参数（DBP）被用作相邻位意选择之间随机量化的概率因素。在获取最佳MPQ策略之后，我们将进一步训练网络使用熵感知的bin正则化和知识蒸馏。我们广泛评估了不同硬件（GPU和FPGA）和数据集的多个网络的方法。 SDQ的表现优于所有最先进的混合或单个精度量化，甚至比较低的位置量化，甚至比各种重新网络和Mobilenet家族的全精度对应物更好，这表明了我们方法的有效性和优势。

已经证明量化是提高深神经网络推理效率的重要方法（DNN）。然而，在将DNN权重或从高精度格式从高精度格式量化到它们量化的对应物的同时，在准确性和效率之间取得良好的平衡仍然具有挑战性。我们提出了一种称为弹性显着位量化（ESB）的新方法，可控制量化值的有效位数，以获得具有更少资源的更好的推理准确性。我们设计一个统一的数学公式，以限制ESB的量化值，具有灵活的有效位。我们还引入了分布差对准器（DDA），以定量对齐全精密重量或激活值和量化值之间的分布。因此，ESB适用于各种重量和DNN的激活的各种钟形分布，从而保持高推理精度。从较少的量化值中受益于较少的量化值，ESB可以降低乘法复杂性。我们将ESB实施为加速器，并定量评估其对FPGA的效率。广泛的实验结果表明，ESB量化始终如一地优于最先进的方法，并分别通过AlexNet，Resnet18和MobileNetv2的平均精度提高4.78％，1.92％和3.56％。此外，ESB作为加速器可以在Xilinx ZCU102 FPGA平台上实现1K LUT的10.95 GOPS峰值性能。与FPGA上的CPU，GPU和最先进的加速器相比，ESB加速器可以分别将能效分别提高到65倍，11x和26倍。

最近，低精确的深度学习加速器（DLA）由于其在芯片区域和能源消耗方面的优势而变得流行，但是这些DLA上的低精确量化模型导致严重的准确性降解。达到高精度和高效推断的一种方法是在低精度DLA上部署高精度神经网络，这很少被研究。在本文中，我们提出了平行的低精确量化（PALQUANT）方法，该方法通过从头开始学习并行低精度表示来近似高精度计算。此外，我们提出了一个新型的循环洗牌模块，以增强平行低精度组之间的跨组信息通信。广泛的实验表明，PALQUANT的精度和推理速度既优于最先进的量化方法，例如，对于RESNET-18网络量化，PALQUANT可以获得0.52 \％的准确性和1.78 $ \ times $ speedup同时获得在最先进的2位加速器上的4位反片机上。代码可在\ url {https://github.com/huqinghao/palquant}中获得。

深度神经网络（DNN）的记录断裂性能具有沉重的参数化，导致外部动态随机存取存储器（DRAM）进行存储。 DRAM访问的禁用能量使得在资源受限的设备上部署DNN是不普遍的，呼叫最小化重量和数据移动以提高能量效率。我们呈现SmartDeal（SD），算法框架，以进行更高成本的存储器存储/访问的较低成本计算，以便在推理和培训中积极提高存储和能量效率。 SD的核心是一种具有结构约束的新型重量分解，精心制作以释放硬件效率潜力。具体地，我们将每个重量张量分解为小基矩阵的乘积以及大的结构稀疏系数矩阵，其非零被量化为-2的功率。由此产生的稀疏和量化的DNN致力于为数据移动和重量存储而大大降低的能量，因为由于稀疏的比特 - 操作和成本良好的计算，恢复原始权重的最小开销。除了推理之外，我们采取了另一次飞跃来拥抱节能培训，引入创新技术，以解决培训时出现的独特障碍，同时保留SD结构。我们还设计专用硬件加速器，充分利用SD结构来提高实际能源效率和延迟。我们在不同的设置中对多个任务，模型和数据集进行实验。结果表明：1）应用于推理，SD可实现高达2.44倍的能效，通过实际硬件实现评估; 2）应用于培训，储存能量降低10.56倍，减少了10.56倍和4.48倍，与最先进的训练基线相比，可忽略的准确性损失。我们的源代码在线提供。

在当今智能网络物理系统时代，由于它们在复杂的现实世界应用中的最新性能，深度神经网络（DNN）已无处不在。这些网络的高计算复杂性转化为增加的能源消耗，这是在资源受限系统中部署大型DNN的首要障碍。通过培训后量化实现的定点（FP）实现通常用于减少这些网络的能源消耗。但是，FP中的均匀量化间隔将数据结构的位宽度限制为大值，因为需要以足够的分辨率来表示大多数数字并避免较高的量化误差。在本文中，我们利用了关键见解，即（在大多数情况下）DNN的权重和激活主要集中在零接近零，只有少数几个具有较大的幅度。我们提出了Conlocnn，该框架是通过利用来实现节能低精度深度卷积神经网络推断的框架：（1）重量的不均匀量化，以简化复杂的乘法操作的简化； （2）激活值之间的相关性，可以在低成本的情况下以低成本进行部分补偿，而无需任何运行时开销。为了显着从不均匀的量化中受益，我们还提出了一种新颖的数据表示格式，编码低精度二进制签名数字，以压缩重量的位宽度，同时确保直接使用编码的权重来使用新颖的多重和处理 - 积累（MAC）单元设计。

Deep neural networks (DNNs) are currently widely used for many artificial intelligence (AI) applications including computer vision, speech recognition, and robotics. While DNNs deliver state-of-the-art accuracy on many AI tasks, it comes at the cost of high computational complexity. Accordingly, techniques that enable efficient processing of DNNs to improve energy efficiency and throughput without sacrificing application accuracy or increasing hardware cost are critical to the wide deployment of DNNs in AI systems.This article aims to provide a comprehensive tutorial and survey about the recent advances towards the goal of enabling efficient processing of DNNs. Specifically, it will provide an overview of DNNs, discuss various hardware platforms and architectures that support DNNs, and highlight key trends in reducing the computation cost of DNNs either solely via hardware design changes or via joint hardware design and DNN algorithm changes. It will also summarize various development resources that enable researchers and practitioners to quickly get started in this field, and highlight important benchmarking metrics and design considerations that should be used for evaluating the rapidly growing number of DNN hardware designs, optionally including algorithmic co-designs, being proposed in academia and industry.The reader will take away the following concepts from this article: understand the key design considerations for DNNs; be able to evaluate different DNN hardware implementations with benchmarks and comparison metrics; understand the trade-offs between various hardware architectures and platforms; be able to evaluate the utility of various DNN design techniques for efficient processing; and understand recent implementation trends and opportunities.