LLMulator: Generalizable Cost Modeling for Dataflow Accelerators with Input-Adaptive Control Flow

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Chang, Kaiyan, Zhu, Wenlong, Liang, Shengwen, Li, Huawei, Wang, Ying
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Chang, Kaiyan
Zhu, Wenlong
Liang, Shengwen
Li, Huawei
Wang, Ying
author_facet Chang, Kaiyan
Zhu, Wenlong
Liang, Shengwen
Li, Huawei
Wang, Ying
contents Accurate and fast performance prediction for dataflow-based accelerators is vital for efficient hardware design and design space exploration, yet existing methods struggle to generalize across architectures, applications, and input-dependent control flows. We present LLMulator, a progressive numeric modeling framework leveraging the program semantic knowledge of pre-trained large language models (LLMs) for robust, hardware- and application-aware prediction. Our numeric model treats performance values as categorical token sequences, enabling range-agnostic estimates and confidence-aware predictions for unseen applications. To handle input-dependent control flows, we introduce a reinforcement learning-based dynamic calibration method, reducing cycle prediction error by 9.7% over static models and converging to 11.2% error after a few iterations. For cross-hardware generalization, we develop a progressive data augmentation strategy that generates diverse datasets covering multi-level dataflow structures, memory parameters, and loop mapping primitives, significantly boosting prediction accuracy across architectures and configurations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_17826
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle LLMulator: Generalizable Cost Modeling for Dataflow Accelerators with Input-Adaptive Control Flow
Chang, Kaiyan
Zhu, Wenlong
Liang, Shengwen
Li, Huawei
Wang, Ying
Hardware Architecture
Accurate and fast performance prediction for dataflow-based accelerators is vital for efficient hardware design and design space exploration, yet existing methods struggle to generalize across architectures, applications, and input-dependent control flows. We present LLMulator, a progressive numeric modeling framework leveraging the program semantic knowledge of pre-trained large language models (LLMs) for robust, hardware- and application-aware prediction. Our numeric model treats performance values as categorical token sequences, enabling range-agnostic estimates and confidence-aware predictions for unseen applications. To handle input-dependent control flows, we introduce a reinforcement learning-based dynamic calibration method, reducing cycle prediction error by 9.7% over static models and converging to 11.2% error after a few iterations. For cross-hardware generalization, we develop a progressive data augmentation strategy that generates diverse datasets covering multi-level dataflow structures, memory parameters, and loop mapping primitives, significantly boosting prediction accuracy across architectures and configurations.
title LLMulator: Generalizable Cost Modeling for Dataflow Accelerators with Input-Adaptive Control Flow
topic Hardware Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.17826