EONSim: An NPU Simulator for On-Chip Memory and Embedding Vector Operations

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Hauptverfasser: Choi, Sangun, Oh, Yunho
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Choi, Sangun
Oh, Yunho
author_facet Choi, Sangun
Oh, Yunho
contents Embedding vector operations are a key component of modern deep neural network workloads. Unlike matrix operations with deterministic access patterns, embedding vector operations exhibit input data-dependent and non-deterministic memory accesses. Existing neural processing unit (NPU) simulators focus on matrix computations with simple double-buffered on-chip memory systems, lacking the modeling capability for realistic embedding behavior. Next-generation NPUs, however, call for more flexible on-chip memory architectures that can support diverse access and management schemes required by embedding workloads. To enable flexible exploration and design of emerging NPU architectures, we present EONSim, an NPU simulator that holistically models both matrix and embedding vector operations. EONSim integrates a validated performance model for matrix computations with detailed memory simulation for embedding accesses, supporting various on-chip memory management policies. Validated against TPUv6e, EONSim achieves an average inference time error of 1.4\% and an average on-chip memory access count error of 2.2\%.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_06679
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle EONSim: An NPU Simulator for On-Chip Memory and Embedding Vector Operations
Choi, Sangun
Oh, Yunho
Hardware Architecture
Embedding vector operations are a key component of modern deep neural network workloads. Unlike matrix operations with deterministic access patterns, embedding vector operations exhibit input data-dependent and non-deterministic memory accesses. Existing neural processing unit (NPU) simulators focus on matrix computations with simple double-buffered on-chip memory systems, lacking the modeling capability for realistic embedding behavior. Next-generation NPUs, however, call for more flexible on-chip memory architectures that can support diverse access and management schemes required by embedding workloads. To enable flexible exploration and design of emerging NPU architectures, we present EONSim, an NPU simulator that holistically models both matrix and embedding vector operations. EONSim integrates a validated performance model for matrix computations with detailed memory simulation for embedding accesses, supporting various on-chip memory management policies. Validated against TPUv6e, EONSim achieves an average inference time error of 1.4\% and an average on-chip memory access count error of 2.2\%.
title EONSim: An NPU Simulator for On-Chip Memory and Embedding Vector Operations
topic Hardware Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.06679