CoCoPIE XGen: A Full-Stack AI-Oriented Optimizing Framework
This addresses the problem of deploying real-time AI apps on resource-constrained edge devices, representing a domain-specific incremental improvement.
The paper tackles the gap between DNN computing demands and edge device capabilities by presenting XGen, an optimizing framework that enables DNNs to run several times faster on edge devices while maintaining accuracy.
There is a growing demand for shifting the delivery of AI capability from data centers on the cloud to edge or end devices, exemplified by the fast emerging real-time AI-based apps running on smartphones, AR/VR devices, autonomous vehicles, and various IoT devices. The shift has however been seriously hampered by the large growing gap between DNN computing demands and the computing power on edge or end devices. This article presents the design of XGen, an optimizing framework for DNN designed to bridge the gap. XGen takes cross-cutting co-design as its first-order consideration. Its full-stack AI-oriented optimizations consist of a number of innovative optimizations at every layer of the DNN software stack, all designed in a cooperative manner. The unique technology makes XGen able to optimize various DNNs, including those with an extreme depth (e.g., BERT, GPT, other transformers), and generate code that runs several times faster than those from existing DNN frameworks, while delivering the same level of accuracy.