METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR SELECTING NUMBER FORMATS FOR DEEP NEURAL NETWORKS BASED ON NETWORK SENSITIVITY AND QUANTISATION ERROR

摘要

A method of determining a number format for representing a set of two or more network parameters of a Deep Neural Network "DNN" for use in configuring hardware logic to implement the DNN. The method includes: determining a sensitivity of the DNN with respect to each network parameter in the set of network parameters; for each candidate number format of a plurality of candidate number formats: determining a quantisation error associated with quantising each network parameter in the set of network parameters in accordance with the candidate number format; generating an estimate of an error in an output of the DNN caused by quantisation of the set of network parameters based on the sensitivities and the quantisation errors; generating a local error based on the estimated error; and selecting the candidate number format of the plurality of candidate number formats with the minimum local error as the number format for the set of network parameters.