GustavSNN: Unleashing the Power of Gustavson's Algorithm on SNN Acceleration with Column-Parallel Tick-Batch Dataflow
Spiking neural networks (SNNs) require sequential computation over long timesteps, introducing substantial memory and energy overheads due to frequent updates of neuron membrane potentials. Previous SNN accelerators address this by employing tick-batch techniques, which process all timesteps within a layer before moving on to the next. However, existing approaches rely on neuron-centric scheduling, limiting their ability to exploit temporal sparsity. In this work, we propose a novel scheduling along with its hardware architecture for Gustavson product (GP)-based SNN acceleration. We introduce a column-parallel tick-batch (CPTB) dataflow that partitions the spike matrix into multiple submatrices and processes each submatrix of a timestep in parallel while maintaining tick-batch semantics. To support this, we present the first GP-based SNN accelerator, named GustavSNN, which avoids accessing the global membrane potential memory by updating neuron states directly in local registers. In addition, we propose a non-zero row vector (NRV) spike format that enables fine-grained skipping of inactive spike rows. As a result, our proposed architecture achieves up to 11.8 times higher energy efficiency (TOPS/W) compared to the naive GP-based accelerator and 1.92 times higher energy efficiency compared to state-of-the-art SNN accelerators.
Tue 3 FebDisplayed time zone: Hobart change
14:10 - 15:30 | |||
14:10 20mTalk | BASES: Enabling Energy-Efficient and Error-Resilient Analog CIM Acceleration via Reformation of Coding Bases Main Conference hongrui guo Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianrui Ma Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, zidong du Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mo Zou Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yifan Hao ICT, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yongwei Zhao Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Rui Zhang Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wei Li Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xing Hu Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhiwei Xu Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, Qi Guo Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianshi Chen Cambricon Technologies | ||
14:30 20mTalk | A PN-Free Digital SAT Accelerator Using Crossbar Architecture and Frequency-Controlled Counters Main Conference Zhezheng Ren University of Waterloo, Chenao Yuan University of Waterloo, Yuke Zhang University of Toronto, Shiyu Su University of Waterloo | ||
14:50 20mTalk | ESTroM: Element-Flow Architecture For Processing Sparse Tractable Probabilistic Models Main Conference anjunyi fan Peking University, Xuejie Liu Peking University, Anji Liu University of California, Los Angeles, Qiuping Wu Peking University, Jiaqi Yang Peking University, Yuchao Qin Peking University, Guy Van den Broeck University of California at Los Angeles, Yitao Liang Peking University, Bonan Yan Peking University | ||
15:10 20mTalk | GustavSNN: Unleashing the Power of Gustavson's Algorithm on SNN Acceleration with Column-Parallel Tick-Batch Dataflow Main Conference Sangwoo Hwang Korea University, Donghun Lee Korea University, Jahyun Koo DGIST, Jaeha Kung Korea University | ||