GRAU: Generic Reconfigurable Activation Unit Design for Neural Network Hardware Accelerators
Researchers have developed GRAU, a novel hardware design for neural network accelerators that significantly reduces the cost and complexity of activation units. By employing piecewise linear fitting with power-of-two approximations for segment slopes, GRAU requires fewer hardware components like comparators and shifters. This approach offers over 90% reduction in LUT consumption compared to traditional multi-threshold methods, enabling greater efficiency, flexibility, and scalability for mixed-precision quantization and nonlinear functions. AI
IMPACT Reduces hardware costs for AI accelerators, potentially enabling wider deployment of neural networks on edge devices.