Optimal ANN-SNN Conversion with Group Neurons

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lv, Liuzhenghao, Fang, Wei, Yuan, Li, Tian, Yonghong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Lv, Liuzhenghao
Fang, Wei
Yuan, Li
Tian, Yonghong
author_facet Lv, Liuzhenghao
Fang, Wei
Yuan, Li
Tian, Yonghong
contents Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) have emerged as a promising third generation of neural networks, offering unique characteristics such as binary outputs, high sparsity, and biological plausibility. However, the lack of effective learning algorithms remains a challenge for SNNs. For instance, while converting artificial neural networks (ANNs) to SNNs circumvents the need for direct training of SNNs, it encounters issues related to conversion errors and high inference time delays. In order to reduce or even eliminate conversion errors while decreasing inference time-steps, we have introduced a novel type of neuron called Group Neurons (GNs). One GN is composed of multiple Integrate-and-Fire (IF) neurons as members, and its neural dynamics are meticulously designed. Based on GNs, we have optimized the traditional ANN-SNN conversion framework. Specifically, we replace the IF neurons in the SNNs obtained by the traditional conversion framework with GNs. The resulting SNNs, which utilize GNs, are capable of achieving accuracy levels comparable to ANNs even within extremely short inference time-steps. The experiments on CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and ImageNet datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed methods in terms of both inference accuracy and latency. Code is available at https://github.com/Lyu6PosHao/ANN2SNN_GN.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_19061
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimal ANN-SNN Conversion with Group Neurons
Lv, Liuzhenghao
Fang, Wei
Yuan, Li
Tian, Yonghong
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) have emerged as a promising third generation of neural networks, offering unique characteristics such as binary outputs, high sparsity, and biological plausibility. However, the lack of effective learning algorithms remains a challenge for SNNs. For instance, while converting artificial neural networks (ANNs) to SNNs circumvents the need for direct training of SNNs, it encounters issues related to conversion errors and high inference time delays. In order to reduce or even eliminate conversion errors while decreasing inference time-steps, we have introduced a novel type of neuron called Group Neurons (GNs). One GN is composed of multiple Integrate-and-Fire (IF) neurons as members, and its neural dynamics are meticulously designed. Based on GNs, we have optimized the traditional ANN-SNN conversion framework. Specifically, we replace the IF neurons in the SNNs obtained by the traditional conversion framework with GNs. The resulting SNNs, which utilize GNs, are capable of achieving accuracy levels comparable to ANNs even within extremely short inference time-steps. The experiments on CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and ImageNet datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed methods in terms of both inference accuracy and latency. Code is available at https://github.com/Lyu6PosHao/ANN2SNN_GN.
title Optimal ANN-SNN Conversion with Group Neurons
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.19061