Accelerating neuron computations in artificial neural networks with dual sparsity

Abstract

Systems and methods for accelerating computation of an artificial neural network (ANN) are provided. An example method comprises receiving, by processing units coupled with arithmetic units and accumulation units, a first plurality of first values and a second plurality of second values associated with one or more neurons of the ANN, generating, by the processing units, a plurality of pairs, wherein each pair of the plurality of pairs has a first value of the first plurality and a second value of the second plurality and the first value and the second value satisfy criteria, performing, by the arithmetic units, mathematical operations on pairs of the plurality of pairs to obtain results; accumulating, by the accumulation units, the results to obtain accumulated results, and determining, by the processing units and based on the accumulated results, an output of the neurons.