Understanding Reuse, Performance, and Hardware Cost of DNN Dataflow

The data partitioning and scheduling strategies used by DNN accelerators to leverage reuse and perform staging are known as dataflow, which directly impacts the performance and energy efficiency of DNN accelerators. An accelerator micro architecture dictates the dataflow(s) that can be employed to execute layers in a DNN. Selecting a dataflow for a layer can have a large impact on utilization and energy efficiency, but there is a lack of understanding on the choices and consequences of dataflow, and of tools and methodologies to help architects explore the co-optimization design space.