为边缘设备设计零缓存卷积加速器,大幅降低内存开销。
RISC-V Based TinyML Accelerator for Depthwise Separable Convolutions in Edge AI
- 采用融合像素级数据流,全程流水线处理,无需中间缓存。
- 相比传统方法减少87%数据搬运,FPGA上提速59.3倍。
- 可部署于资源受限的TinyML场景,适合低功耗边缘推理。
边缘人工智能与轻量级机器学习(TinyML)应用对本地智能需求日益增长,要求高效执行现代卷积神经网络(CNN)。尽管轻量级架构如MobileNetV2采用深度可分离卷积(DSC)降低计算复杂度,其多阶段设计仍存在层间执行带来的性能瓶颈:将中间特征图传入片上大缓存或片外DRAM导致高能耗与延迟。为突破内存墙,本文提出一种新型硬件加速架构,采用融合像素级数据流。该架构作为RISC-V处理器的自定义功能单元(CFU)实现,彻底消除中间缓冲区需求,数据搬运最多减少87%。它通过紧密耦合的流水线,一次性完成所有DSC阶段(扩展、深度卷积、投影)的单像素计算,全程数据流式处理不写入内存。在Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA上评估显示,相比RISC-V核心基线软件执行,最高提速59.3倍。此外,ASIC综合结果显示:28 nm工艺下面积0.284 mm²、功耗910 mW(2 GHz),40 nm工艺下面积1.20 mm²、功耗233 mW(300 MHz)。本工作验证了在TinyML资源约束下实现零缓存数据流的可行性,为边缘AI加速器提供新颖有效的内存墙突破策略。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
The increasing demand for on-device intelligence in Edge AI and TinyML applications requires the efficient execution of modern Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). While lightweight architectures like MobileNetV2 employ Depthwise Separable Convolutions (DSC) to reduce computational complexity, their multi-stage design introduces a critical performance bottleneck inherent to layer-by-layer execution: the high energy and latency cost of transferring intermediate feature maps to either large on-chip buffers or off-chip DRAM. To address this memory wall, this paper introduces a novel hardware accelerator architecture that utilizes a fused pixel-wise dataflow. Implemented as a Custom Function Unit (CFU) for a RISC-V processor, our architecture eliminates the need for intermediate buffers entirely, reducing the data movement up to 87\% compared to conventional layer-by-layer execution. It computes a single output pixel to completion across all DSC stages-expansion, depthwise convolution, and projection-by streaming data through a tightly-coupled pipeline without writing to memory. Evaluated on a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA, our design achieves a speedup of up to 59.3x over the baseline software execution on the RISC-V core. Furthermore, ASIC synthesis projects a compact 0.284 mm$^2$ footprint with 910 mW power at 2 GHz in 28 nm, and a 1.20 mm$^2$ footprint with 233 mW power at 300 MHz in 40 nm. This work confirms the feasibility of a zero-buffer dataflow within a TinyML resource envelope, offering a novel and effective strategy for overcoming the memory wall in edge AI accelerators.
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