Method and apparatus for hardware-accelerated machine learning

Abstract

A multi-functional data processing pipeline for use with machine learning is disclosed. The multi-functional pipeline may comprise a plurality of pipelined data processing engines, the plurality of pipelined data processing engines being configured to perform processing operations, and the pipelined data processing engines can include correlation logic. The multi-functional pipeline can be configured to controllably activate or deactivate each of the pipelined data processing engines in the pipeline in response to control instructions and thereby define a function for the pipeline, each pipeline function being the combined functionality of each activated pipelined data processing engine in the pipeline. In example embodiments, such pipelines can be used to accelerate convolutional layers in machine-learning technology such as convolutional neural networks.