8-bit Numerical Formats for Deep Neural Networks

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2206.02915v1
• Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2022 21:31:32 GMT
• Title: 8-bit Numerical Formats for Deep Neural Networks
• Authors: Badreddine Noune, Philip Jones, Daniel Justus, Dominic Masters, and Carlo Luschi
• Abstract summary: We present an in-depth study on the use of 8-bit floating-point number formats for activations, weights, and gradients for both training and inference. Experiments demonstrate that a suitable choice of these low-precision formats enables faster training and reduced power consumption without any degradation in accuracy for a range of deep learning models for image classification and language processing.
• Score: 1.304892050913381
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Abstract: Given the current trend of increasing size and complexity of machine learning architectures, it has become of critical importance to identify new approaches to improve the computational efficiency of model training. In this context, we address the advantages of floating-point over fixed-point representation, and present an in-depth study on the use of 8-bit floating-point number formats for activations, weights, and gradients for both training and inference. We explore the effect of different bit-widths for exponents and significands and different exponent biases. The experimental results demonstrate that a suitable choice of these low-precision formats enables faster training and reduced power consumption without any degradation in accuracy for a range of deep learning models for image classification and language processing.

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