Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Mohammad El-Shabani

Ron Diamant

Sundeep Amirineni

Ilya Minkin

Kenneth Wayne Patton

Samuel Jacob

Randy Renfu Huang

Kun Xu

Drazen Borkovic

Raymond Scott Whiteside

Yu Zhou

Uday Shilton Udayaselvam

Willis Wang

Sagar Sonar

Richard John Heaton

Thomas Elmer

Dana Michelle Vantrease

Henry Wang

Zhao Ma

Systems and methods for performing hardware approximation of functions are provided. In one example, a system comprises a controller, a plurality of multiplexors, configurable arithmetic circuits, and a mapping table that stores a set of function parameters. According to a mode of operations, the controller may configure the plurality of multiplexors to forward the set of function parameters or a subset of the function parameters to the arithmetic circuits to compute an approximation result. In a case where the subset of the function parameters is forwarded to the arithmetic circuits, the controller may configure the arithmetic circuits to perform post-processing, such as quantization, of the approximation result.

Configurable function approximation based on hardware selection of mapping table content

Multi-threaded data movement request handling techniques are disclosed. The techniques can include performing, by a direct memory access (DMA) engine, one or more data movement operations associated with a data movement phase of a first data movement task, initiating a data movement phase of a second data movement task during a wait period for the sync phase of the first data movement task, initiating the sync phase of the first data movement task following expiration of the wait period for the sync phase of the first data movement task, and performing a sync operation associated with the sync phase of the first data movement task.

Multi-threaded data movement request handling

Techniques are disclosed for setting a breakpoint for debugging a neural network. User input is received by a debugger program executable by a host processor indicating a target layer of a neural network at which to halt execution of the neural network. The neural network includes a first set of instructions to be executed by a first execution engine and a second set of instructions to be executed by a second execution engine. A first halt point is set within the first set of instructions and a second halt point is set within the second set of instructions. It is then determined that operation of the first execution engine and the second execution engine has halted. It is then determined that the first execution engine has reached the first halt point. The second execution engine is then caused to move through instructions until reaching the second halt point.

Breakpoints in neural network accelerator

Techniques to reduce overhead in a direct memory access (DMA) engine can include processing descriptors from a descriptor queue to obtain a striding configuration to generate tensorized memory descriptors. The striding configuration can include, for each striding dimension, a stride and a repetition number indicating a number of times to repeat striding in the corresponding striding dimension. One or more sets of tensorized memory descriptors can be generated based on the striding configuration. Data transfers are then performed based on the generated tensorized memory descriptors.

Multidimensional and multiblock tensorized direct memory access descriptors

Embodiments include techniques for enabling execution of N inferences on an execution engine of a neural network device. Instruction code for a single inference is stored in a memory that is accessible by a DMA engine, the instruction code forming a regular code block. A NOP code block and a reset code block for resetting an instruction DMA queue are stored in the memory. The instruction DMA queue is generated such that, when it is executed by the DMA engine, it causes the DMA engine to copy, for each of N inferences, both the regular code block and an additional code block to an instruction buffer. The additional code block is the NOP code block for the first N&#x2212;1 inferences and is the reset code block for the Ninference. When the reset code block is executed by the execution engine, the instruction DMA queue is reset.

Dynamic code loading for multiple executions on a sequential processor

To reduce direct memory access (DMA) overhead, a tensorized descriptor can be used to generate a series of memory descriptors to perform a series of DMA data transfers. The tensorized descriptor may include attributes such as a stride and a memory descriptor template, which can be used to generate the series of memory descriptors. Hence, instead of having to retrieve each of the memory descriptors to perform the series of DMA transfers, a single tensorized descriptor can be retrieved to perform a series of data transfers.

Tensorized direct memory access descriptors

In one example, an integrated circuit comprises: a memory configured to store a first mapping between a first opcode and first control information and a second mapping between the first opcode and second control information; a processing engine configured to perform processing operations based on the control information; and a controller configured to: at a first time, provide the first opcode to the memory to, based on the first mapping stored in the memory, fetch the first control information for the processing engine, to enable the processing engine to perform a first processing operation based on the first control information; and at a second time, provide the first opcode to the memory to, based on the second mapping stored in the memory, fetch the second control information for the processing engine, to enable the processing engine to perform a second processing operation based on the second control information.

Hardware engine with configurable instructions

Methods and systems for performing hardware approximation of function are provided. In one example, a system comprises a controller, configurable arithmetic circuits, and a mapping table. The mapping table stores a first set of function parameters in a first mode of operation and stores a second set of function parameters in a second mode of operation. Depending on the mode of operation, the controller may configure the arithmetic circuits to compute a first approximation result of a function at an input value based on the first set of function parameters, or to compute a second approximation result of the function at the input value based on the second set of function parameters and to perform post-processing, such as quantization, of the second approximation result.

Configurable function approximation based on switching mapping table content

Methods and systems for performing hardware computations of mathematical functions are provided. In one example, a system comprises a mapping table that maps each base value of a plurality of base values to parameters related to a mathematical function; a selection module configured to select, based on an input value, a first base value and first parameters mapped to the first base value in the mapping table; and arithmetic circuits configured to: receive, from the mapping table, the first base value and the first plurality of parameters; and compute, based on a relationship between the input value and the first base value, and based on the first parameters, an estimated output value of the mathematical function for the input value.

Hardware implementation of mathematical functions

Systems and methods for non-intrusive hardware profiling are provided. In some cases integrated circuit devices can be manufactured without native support for performance measurement and/or debugging capabilities, thereby limiting visibility into the integrated circuit device. Understanding the timing of operations can help to determine whether the hardware of the device is operating correctly and, when the device is not operating correctly, provide information that can be used to debug the device. In order to measure execution time of various tasks performed by the integrated circuit device, program instructions may be inserted to generate notifications that provide tracing information, including timestamps, for operations executed by the integrated circuit device.

Non-intrusive hardware profiling

A reconfigurable processing circuit and system are provided. The system allows a user to program machine-level instructions in order to reconfigure the way the circuit behaves, including by adding new operations. The system can include a profile access content-addressable memory (CAM) configured to receive an execution step value from a step counter. The execution step value can be incremented and/or reset by a step management logic. The profile access CAM can select an entry of a profile table based on an opcode and the execution step value, and the processing engine can execute microcode based on the selected entry of the profile table. The profile access CAM can translate the opcode to an internal short instruction identifier in order to select the entry of the profile table. The system can further include an instruction decoding module configured to merge multiple instruction fields into a single effective instruction field.

Methods and systems for supporting parametric function computations in hardware circuits are proposed. In one example, a system comprises a hardware mapping table, a control circuit, and arithmetic circuits. The control circuit is configured to: in a first mode of operation, forward a set of parameters of a non-parametric function associated with an input value from the hardware mapping table to the arithmetic circuits to compute a first approximation of the non-parametric function at the input value; and in a second mode of operation, based on information indicating whether the input value is in a first input range or in a second input range from the hardware mapping table, forward a first parameter or a second parameter of a parametric function to the arithmetic circuits to compute, respectively, a second approximation or a third approximation of the parametric function at the input value.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Mohammad El-Shabani