Tensor Manipulation Unit (TMU): Reconfigurable, Near-Memory Tensor Manipulation for High-Throughput AI SoC

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Zhou, Weiyu, Wang, Zheng, Chen, Chao, Li, Yike, Yang, Yongkui, Wu, Zhuoyu, Chattopadhyay, Anupam
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Zhou, Weiyu
Wang, Zheng
Chen, Chao
Li, Yike
Yang, Yongkui
Wu, Zhuoyu
Chattopadhyay, Anupam
author_facet Zhou, Weiyu
Wang, Zheng
Chen, Chao
Li, Yike
Yang, Yongkui
Wu, Zhuoyu
Chattopadhyay, Anupam
contents While recent advances in AI SoC design have focused heavily on accelerating tensor computation, the equally critical task of tensor manipulation, centered on high,volume data movement with minimal computation, remains underexplored. This work addresses that gap by introducing the Tensor Manipulation Unit (TMU), a reconfigurable, near-memory hardware block designed to efficiently execute data-movement-intensive operators. TMU manipulates long datastreams in a memory-to-memory fashion using a RISC-inspired execution model and a unified addressing abstraction, enabling broad support for both coarse- and fine-grained tensor transformations. Integrated alongside a TPU within a high-throughput AI SoC, the TMU leverages double buffering and output forwarding to improve pipeline utilization. Fabricated in SMIC 40nm technology, the TMU occupies only 0.019 mm2 while supporting over 10 representative tensor manipulation operators. Benchmarking shows that TMU alone achieves up to 1413 and 8.54 operator-level latency reduction compared to ARM A72 and NVIDIA Jetson TX2, respectively. When integrated with the in-house TPU, the complete system achieves a 34.6% reduction in end-to-end inference latency, demonstrating the effectiveness and scalability of reconfigurable tensor manipulation in modern AI SoCs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_14364
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tensor Manipulation Unit (TMU): Reconfigurable, Near-Memory Tensor Manipulation for High-Throughput AI SoC
Zhou, Weiyu
Wang, Zheng
Chen, Chao
Li, Yike
Yang, Yongkui
Wu, Zhuoyu
Chattopadhyay, Anupam
Hardware Architecture
While recent advances in AI SoC design have focused heavily on accelerating tensor computation, the equally critical task of tensor manipulation, centered on high,volume data movement with minimal computation, remains underexplored. This work addresses that gap by introducing the Tensor Manipulation Unit (TMU), a reconfigurable, near-memory hardware block designed to efficiently execute data-movement-intensive operators. TMU manipulates long datastreams in a memory-to-memory fashion using a RISC-inspired execution model and a unified addressing abstraction, enabling broad support for both coarse- and fine-grained tensor transformations. Integrated alongside a TPU within a high-throughput AI SoC, the TMU leverages double buffering and output forwarding to improve pipeline utilization. Fabricated in SMIC 40nm technology, the TMU occupies only 0.019 mm2 while supporting over 10 representative tensor manipulation operators. Benchmarking shows that TMU alone achieves up to 1413 and 8.54 operator-level latency reduction compared to ARM A72 and NVIDIA Jetson TX2, respectively. When integrated with the in-house TPU, the complete system achieves a 34.6% reduction in end-to-end inference latency, demonstrating the effectiveness and scalability of reconfigurable tensor manipulation in modern AI SoCs.
title Tensor Manipulation Unit (TMU): Reconfigurable, Near-Memory Tensor Manipulation for High-Throughput AI SoC
topic Hardware Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14364