Multi-Precision Quantized Neural Networks via Encoding Decomposition of {-1,+1}

Authors

  • Qigong Sun Xidian University
  • Fanhua Shang Xidian University
  • Kang Yang Xidian University
  • Xiufang Li Xidian University
  • Yan Ren Xidian University
  • Licheng Jiao Xidian University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v33i01.33015024

Abstract

The training of deep neural networks (DNNs) requires intensive resources both for computation and for storage performance. Thus, DNNs cannot be efficiently applied to mobile phones and embedded devices, which seriously limits their applicability in industry applications. To address this issue, we propose a novel encoding scheme of using {−1, +1} to decompose quantized neural networks (QNNs) into multibranch binary networks, which can be efficiently implemented by bitwise operations (xnor and bitcount) to achieve model compression, computational acceleration and resource saving. Based on our method, users can easily achieve different encoding precisions arbitrarily according to their requirements and hardware resources. The proposed mechanism is very suitable for the use of FPGA and ASIC in terms of data storage and computation, which provides a feasible idea for smart chips. We validate the effectiveness of our method on both large-scale image classification tasks (e.g., ImageNet) and object detection tasks. In particular, our method with lowbit encoding can still achieve almost the same performance as its full-precision counterparts.

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Published

2019-07-17

How to Cite

Sun, Q., Shang, F., Yang, K., Li, X., Ren, Y., & Jiao, L. (2019). Multi-Precision Quantized Neural Networks via Encoding Decomposition of {-1,+1}. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 33(01), 5024-5032. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v33i01.33015024

Issue

Section

AAAI Technical Track: Machine Learning