Abstract:
In this paper, we propose NNASIM, an efficient timing and area accurate event-driven simulator for custom DNN accelerators. NNASIM is a highly-modular and highly paramete...Show MoreMetadata
Abstract:
In this paper, we propose NNASIM, an efficient timing and area accurate event-driven simulator for custom DNN accelerators. NNASIM is a highly-modular and highly parameterized modeling framework. We build accurate timing and area models for common accelerator modules like GEMM, ALU array, and crossbar using ASIC synthesis flows. These models are fed into the event-driven simulator for fast simulation. NNASIM is integrated with a RISC-V simulator. This approach guarantees the functional correctness of the accelerator simulation at the instruction level. The experimental results show that our model evaluates the performance and area of DNN accelerators with less than 0.76% and 2.83% error, respectively, compared to RTL implementations. NNASIM allows designers to model the performance and area of the accelerator at a high level, and thus enables the systematic microarchitecture design space exploration of the custom accelerators.
Date of Conference: 27 May 2022 - 01 June 2022
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 11 November 2022
ISBN Information: