QMC通过智能分存权重,让小模型在边缘设备上更快更省电。
QMC: Efficient SLM Edge Inference via Outlier-Aware Quantization and Emergent Memories Co-Design
- 区分普通与关键权重,分别存入低功耗阻变存储器和高精度磁性存储器。
- 相比浮点16位,内存减少6.3到7.3倍,能耗降低11.7倍,延迟减少12.5倍。
- 无需重训练,适配最新边缘平台,适合实时生成类应用部署。
将小型语言模型(SLMs)部署于边缘设备对实现即时、隐私敏感的生成式AI至关重要,但受限于内存、延迟和能耗预算。量化虽能压缩模型,却受新兴非易失性存储器中设备噪声影响;传统存储层级进一步制约效率。SRAM访问快但密度低,DRAM需同时容纳静态权重与动态键值缓存,造成带宽竞争,而闪存虽密度高,仅用于初始化,推理时闲置。这些限制凸显出需为LLM推理定制混合存储架构。本文提出无重训练的异常值感知量化与存储协同设计(QMC),识别SLMs中的普通权重与异常值,将普通权重存入紧凑型多级阻变存储器(ReRAM),关键异常值保留在高精度片上磁性存储器(MRAM),有效缓解噪声导致的性能退化。在语言建模与推理基准测试中,QMC优于或媲美先进量化方法,且在算法评估与真实部署环境下均实现更高压缩率。具体而言,在最新边缘AI平台上,相比最先进量化方法,QMC相较FP16将内存使用降低6.3至7.3倍,外部数据传输减少7.6倍,能耗降低11.7倍,延迟减少12.5倍,确立其为可扩展、部署就绪的高效端侧推理协同设计。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Deploying Small Language Models (SLMs) on edge platforms is critical for real-time, privacy-sensitive generative AI, yet constrained by memory, latency, and energy budgets. Quantization reduces model size and cost but suffers from device noise in emerging non-volatile memories, while conventional memory hierarchies further limit efficiency. SRAM provides fast access but has low density, DRAM must simultaneously accommodate static weights and dynamic KV caches, which creates bandwidth contention, and Flash, although dense, is primarily used for initialization and remains inactive during inference. These limitations highlight the need for hybrid memory organizations tailored to LLM inference. We propose Outlier-aware Quantization with Memory Co-design (QMC), a retraining-free quantization with a novel heterogeneous memory architecture. QMC identifies inlier and outlier weights in SLMs, storing inlier weights in compact multi-level Resistive-RAM (ReRAM) while preserving critical outliers in high-precision on-chip Magnetoresistive-RAM (MRAM), mitigating noise-induced degradation. On language modeling and reasoning benchmarks, QMC outperforms and matches state-of-the-art quantization methods using advanced algorithms and hybrid data formats, while achieving greater compression under both algorithm-only evaluation and realistic deployment settings. Specifically, compared against SoTA quantization methods on the latest edge AI platform, QMC reduces memory usage by 6.3x-7.3x, external data transfers by 7.6x, energy by 11.7x, and latency by 12.5x when compared to FP16, establishing QMC as a scalable, deployment-ready co-design for efficient on-device inference.
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