Calibration of matrix-vector operations on resistive processing unit hardware

Abstract

A system comprises a processor, and a resistive processing resistive processing unit coupled to the processor. The resistive processing unit comprises an array of cells, wherein the cells respectively comprise resistive memory devices, wherein at least a portion of the resistive memory devices are programmable to store weight values of a given matrix in the array of cells. The processor is configured to store the given matrix in the array of cells of the resistive processing unit, and perform a calibration process to generate a first set of calibration parameters for calibrating forward pass matrix-vector multiplication operations performed on the stored matrix in the array of cells of the resistive processing unit, and a second set of calibration parameters for calibrating backward pass matrix-vector multiplication operations performed on a transpose of the stored matrix in the array of cells of the resistive processing unit.