Address decoding by neural network inference circuit read controller

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a neural network inference circuit (NNIC) for executing a neural network (NN) that includes computation nodes at multiple layers. The NNIC includes a set of processing circuits for executing the computation nodes of the NN, a set of memories for storing data used by the processing circuits to execute the NN layers, and a read controller for retrieving the data from the memories for use by the processing circuits. The data is stored in the memories as multiple varying-size blocks. The read controller receives read instructions for a requested block of data to be used by the processing circuits for one or more computation nodes. The read instructions include a base memory address for multiple blocks of data, a size of the requested block of data, and a location of the requested block of data within the multiple blocks of data.