Forum Discussion

Mads_From_Denmark's avatar
Mads_From_Denmark
Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
5 days ago
Solved

AI Suite - Various Questions

Hello Altera Community I have a few questions about the AI Suite 1. Estimating whether a model will fit on an FPGA using a formula Suppose I have a neural network with x amount of layers and y...
  • JohnT_Altera's avatar
    10 hours ago

    1. Estimating whether a model will fit on an FPGA using a formula

    What could be an approximating formula (It does not need to be accurate). And what are the typical limiting factors?

    You can run the dla_compiler to get the resources utilization  base on https://docs.altera.com/r/docs/863373/2026.1.1/fpga-ai-suite-handbook/estimating-the-area-and-power-of-an-architecture

    2. Impact of the enable_parameter_rom parameter

    Is it correctly understood that this parameter determines whatever the mif (Memory initialization files) containing the weights are put inside a rom or external memory?
    This function is depreciated. Use enable_on_chip_parameters and disable_external_memory instead. This will disable the use of external memory

    Does this actually impact the speed? I would assume that the external memory might be faster than some of the bottleneck components in the AI IP block.

    Yes, but will increase the M20K utilziation

    3. Any architecture options for the Spatial IP?

    My model uses a 16bf * 6 input, so I think it would make sense to increase the input stream size so it matches. But I don't know if the same options from the sequential IP also applies to the spatial IP, since the example is just two lines.
    Please refer to 
    $COREDLA_ROOT/example_architectures/AGX5_Simple_Spatial.arch

    • $COREDLA_ROOT/example_architectures/AGX7_Robust_Spatial_Compilation.arch
    • $COREDLA_ROOT/example_architectures/AGX7_Simple_Spatial.arch