Optimizing CNN Accelerator With Improved Roofline Model

The external memory I/O bandwidth is the most common performance bottleneck for Convolutional Neural Network(CNN) inference accelerators. On the other hand, performance is also affected by many other factors such as the on-chip memory size and data scheduling strategies, making it difficult to identify the root cause of performance degradation. This paper proposes an improved roofline model specifically for the CNN accelerator, which provides a deep understanding of the bandwidth bottlenecks and points out the direction of optimization. Previous roofline models have focused on modeling and optimizing each layer, while neglecting some high-level optimizations (e.g. layer fusion and batch processing) that alleviate the bandwidth requirements. However, the uneven cross-layer bandwidth requirements can have a significant impact on the overall performance, and the combination of independently optimized layers does not necessarily result in an overall optimal solution. Our model is capable of modeling more complex data scheduling strategies and enables a larger design space than previous roofline models. We use the Xilinx CNN accelerator on ZU9 FPGA as an example for quantitative analysis and optimization. We apply the optimization method derived from the improved roofline model to the original design and ultimately achieve a 1.6x performance improvement. The derived optimization method effectively solves the severe temporary bandwidth overload problem in the original design that leads to the computational inefficiency.