提出两种无需内存开销的轻量级纠错方案,显著提升大模型可靠性。
Effective and Memory-Efficient Alternatives to ECC for Reliable Large-Scale DNNs

- MSET仅加固卷积与视觉变换器中易错比特,CEP实现全参数细粒度保护
- 在FP16/FP32下仅保护最高指数位即可有效防护ViT,BER抗性提升一个数量级
- 相比SECDED ECC,面积开销降3.5倍、解码速度提升7倍,适合车载与数据中心
现代深度学习工作负载日益部署于汽车系统和超大规模数据中心等安全关键领域,瞬态硬件故障对系统可靠性构成严重威胁。这些工作负载高度依赖存储于内存中的模型参数,通常采用错误纠正码(ECC)进行保护。本文研究了ECC对大型神经网络的影响,提出了两种轻量级替代方案:MSET仅选择性加固CNN与ViT参数中最脆弱的比特;CEP则对所有参数比特提供细粒度保护。实验表明,两种方法均显著提升大型CNN与ViT的可靠性,普遍优于传统的单错误检测双错误纠正(SECDED)ECC方案,且无内存开销。在FP16和FP32表示下,仅保护最高指数位即可有效防护ViT。应用CEP技术可使DNN抗误码率(BER)提高一个数量级,同时相较SECDED ECC实现3.5倍更低的面积开销和7倍更快的解码速度。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Modern Deep Learning (DL) workloads are increasingly deployed in safety-critical domains, such as automotive systems and hyperscale data centers, where transient hardware faults pose a serious threat to system reliability. These workloads are highly memory-intensive, and their correct functionality strongly depends on model parameters stored in memory, which are typically protected using Error Correction Codes (ECCs). In this work, we study ECC's impact on such models and propose two lightweight alternatives to ECCs that achieve superior reliability. The first approach, MSET, selectively hardens the most vulnerable bits in CNN and ViT parameters, while the second approach, CEP, provides fine-grained protection for all parameter bits. Experimental results demonstrate that both methods significantly enhance the reliability of large CNNs and ViTs, mostly outperforming conventional Single Error Detection Double Error Correction (SECDED) ECC schemes, with no memory overhead and, in fact, with considerably lower area and delay characteristics when compared to SECDEC. Experimental results indicate that ViTs can be effectively protected by merely protecting their highest exponent bits in FP16 and FP32 representations. Furthermore, applying the CEP technique can guarantee the resilience of DNNs by up to one order of magnitude higher BERs, with a 3.5x lower area overhead and 7x faster decoder compared to SECDED ECC.
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