Automatic generation of high-performance quantized machine learning kernels

Abstract

Quantization optimizes machine learning inference for resource constrained environments by reducing the precision of its computation. In the extreme, even single-bit computations can produce acceptable results at dramatically lower cost. But this ultra-low-precision quantization is difficult to exploit because extracting optimal performance requires hand-tuning both high-level scheduling decisions and low-level implementations. As a result, practitioners settle for a few predefined quantized kernels, sacrificing optimality and restricting their ability to adapt to new hardware.