arXiv:2605.11855cs.LGcs.AI2026-05中稿 · ICML被引 1

提出CMRU提升低功耗RNN的长期依赖学习能力。

Improving the Performance and Learning Stability of Parallelizable RNNs Designed for Ultra-Low Power Applications

论文配图:Improving the Performance and Learning Stability of Parallelizable RNNs Designed for Ultra-Low Power Applications
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 用累积更新替代传统状态更新,恢复梯度流动
  • 小模型下性能超越LRU和minGRU,收敛更稳定
  • 适合需长程记忆的模拟硬件实现场景

序列学习主要由Transformer和可并行化的RNN(如状态空间模型)主导,但长期依赖学习仍具挑战性,且当前先进设计常以牺牲功耗换取性能。为实现超低功耗RNN的软硬件协同设计,引入了双稳态记忆循环单元(BMRU):量化状态结合滞回特性提供持久记忆,并直接映射到模拟原语。然而,BMRU在复杂序列任务上的表现落后于可并行化RNN。本文识别出状态更新中的梯度阻塞是关键限制,提出一种累积更新公式,在保持持久记忆的同时恢复梯度流,实现时间维度的跳跃连接。由此提出累积记忆循环单元(CMRU)及其松弛变体αCMRU。实验表明,该累积公式显著提升收敛稳定性并降低初始化敏感性。在小模型规模下,CMRU与αCMRU在多个基准测试中达到或超过线性循环单元(LRUs)和最小门控循环单元(minGRUs)的性能,尤其在需要离散长程保留的任务上优势明显,同时保留量化状态、持久记忆及抗噪动态特性,适用于模拟实现。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Sequence learning is dominated by Transformers and parallelizable recurrent neural networks (RNNs) such as state-space models, yet learning long-term dependencies remains challenging, and state-of-the-art designs trade power consumption for performance. The Bistable Memory Recurrent Unit (BMRU) was introduced to enable hardware-software co-design of ultra-low power RNNs: quantized states with hysteresis provide persistent memory while mapping directly to analog primitives. However, BMRU performance lags behind parallelizable RNNs on complex sequential tasks. In this paper, we identify gradient blocking during state updates as a key limitation and propose a cumulative update formulation that restores gradient flow while preserving persistent memory, creating skip-connections through time. This leads to the Cumulative Memory Recurrent Unit (CMRU) and its relaxed variant, the $α$CMRU. Experiments show that the cumulative formulation dramatically improves convergence stability and reduces initialization sensitivity. The CMRU and $α$CMRU match or outperform Linear Recurrent Units (LRUs) and minimal Gated Recurrent Units (minGRUs) across diverse benchmarks at small model sizes, with particular advantages on tasks requiring discrete long-range retention, while the CMRU retains quantized states, persistent memory, and noise-resilient dynamics essential for analog implementation.

RNN低功耗长期依赖硬件协同

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