Systolic Array Zero Detection for Dynamic Power Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Systolic arrays used in neural networks face significant dynamic power consumption due to concurrent multiply-accumulate operations, especially when dealing with zero values and no-operation cycles, which waste energy and increase heat dissipation.
Innovation Solution
Implementing zero detector circuits external to processing elements (PEs) to identify zero input data and weight values, allowing for the skipping of multiplication operations and reducing power consumption by using zero indicators to gate registers and bypass multiplication results.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If zero detector circuits are implemented external to processing elements, then dynamic power consumption is reduced by skipping unnecessary multiplication operations, but device complexity increases due to additional detection circuitry and control mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The zero detector circuits are extracted from within each processing element and placed externally, allowing individual PEs to skip multiplication operations when input data or weights are zero. This extraction reduces the computational workload and power consumption of each PE while centralizing the detection function.
Solution Approach 2:
Zero detection is performed before multiplication operations to identify cases where computation can be skipped. By detecting zero values in advance and generating skip signals, the system avoids performing unnecessary arithmetic operations, thereby reducing dynamic power consumption.
2Use of energy by moving object
If multiplication operations are skipped for zero values, then energy efficiency is improved, but manufacturing precision may be affected due to approximate computation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a skip mechanism that bypasses multiplication operations when the input data element or weight is zero. The zero detector circuits identify zero values and generate skip signals that prevent unnecessary computation, directly improving energy efficiency by eliminating wasted arithmetic operations on zero operands.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are provided to skip multiplication operations with zeros in processing elements of the systolic array to reduce dynamic power consumption. A value of zero can be detected on an input data element entering each row of the array and respective zero indicators may be generated. These respective zero indicators may be passed to all the processing elements in the respective rows. The multiplication operation with the zero value can be skipped in each processing element based on the zero indicators, thus reducing dynamic power consumption.