Inference-Scale Complexity in ANN-SNN Conversion for High-Performance and Low-Power Applications

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Bu, Tong, Li, Maohua, Yu, Zhaofei
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Bu, Tong
Li, Maohua
Yu, Zhaofei
author_facet Bu, Tong
Li, Maohua
Yu, Zhaofei
contents Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) have emerged as a promising substitute for Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) due to their advantages of fast inference and low power consumption. However, the lack of efficient training algorithms has hindered their widespread adoption. Even efficient ANN-SNN conversion methods necessitate quantized training of ANNs to enhance the effectiveness of the conversion, incurring additional training costs. To address these challenges, we propose an efficient ANN-SNN conversion framework with only inference scale complexity. The conversion framework includes a local threshold balancing algorithm, which enables efficient calculation of the optimal thresholds and fine-grained adjustment of the threshold value by channel-wise scaling. We also introduce an effective delayed evaluation strategy to mitigate the influence of the spike propagation delays. We demonstrate the scalability of our framework in typical computer vision tasks: image classification, semantic segmentation, object detection, and video classification. Our algorithm outperforms existing methods, highlighting its practical applicability and efficiency. Moreover, we have evaluated the energy consumption of the converted SNNs, demonstrating their superior low-power advantage compared to conventional ANNs. This approach simplifies the deployment of SNNs by leveraging open-source pre-trained ANN models, enabling fast, low-power inference with negligible performance reduction. Code is available at https://github.com/putshua/Inference-scale-ANN-SNN.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_03368
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Inference-Scale Complexity in ANN-SNN Conversion for High-Performance and Low-Power Applications
Bu, Tong
Li, Maohua
Yu, Zhaofei
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) have emerged as a promising substitute for Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) due to their advantages of fast inference and low power consumption. However, the lack of efficient training algorithms has hindered their widespread adoption. Even efficient ANN-SNN conversion methods necessitate quantized training of ANNs to enhance the effectiveness of the conversion, incurring additional training costs. To address these challenges, we propose an efficient ANN-SNN conversion framework with only inference scale complexity. The conversion framework includes a local threshold balancing algorithm, which enables efficient calculation of the optimal thresholds and fine-grained adjustment of the threshold value by channel-wise scaling. We also introduce an effective delayed evaluation strategy to mitigate the influence of the spike propagation delays. We demonstrate the scalability of our framework in typical computer vision tasks: image classification, semantic segmentation, object detection, and video classification. Our algorithm outperforms existing methods, highlighting its practical applicability and efficiency. Moreover, we have evaluated the energy consumption of the converted SNNs, demonstrating their superior low-power advantage compared to conventional ANNs. This approach simplifies the deployment of SNNs by leveraging open-source pre-trained ANN models, enabling fast, low-power inference with negligible performance reduction. Code is available at https://github.com/putshua/Inference-scale-ANN-SNN.
title Inference-Scale Complexity in ANN-SNN Conversion for High-Performance and Low-Power Applications
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.03368