about
Generative Adversarial Neural Network Acceleration with Silicon Photonics (arxiv.org)
2 points by belter on Jan 24, 2025 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: A chip that computes with light, built to run the special steps image-generating AI needs and skip repeated work. It runs at least 4.4 times more operations per second than top GPUs and TPUs, using less than half the energy per bit.

Abstract · PhotoGAN: Generative Adversarial Neural Network Acceleration with Silicon Photonics

Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are at the forefront of AI innovation, driving advancements in areas such as image synthesis, medical imaging, and data augmentation. However, the unique computational operations within GANs, such as transposed convolutions and instance normalization, introduce significant inefficiencies when executed on traditional electronic accelerators, resulting in high energy consumption and suboptimal performance. To address these challenges, we introduce PhotoGAN, the first silicon-photonic accelerator designed to handle the specialized operations of GAN models. By leveraging the inherent high throughput and energy efficiency of silicon photonics, PhotoGAN offers an innovative, reconfigurable architecture capable of accelerating transposed convolutions and other GAN-specific layers. The accelerator also incorporates a sparse computation optimization technique to reduce redundant operations, improving computational efficiency. Our experimental results demonstrate that PhotoGAN achieves at least 4.4x higher GOPS and 2.18x lower energy-per-bit (EPB) compared to state-of-the-art accelerators, including GPUs and TPUs. These findings showcase PhotoGAN as a promising solution for the next generation of GAN acceleration, providing substantial gains in both performance and energy efficiency.

Tharini Suresh, Salma Afifi, Sudeep Pasricha
arXiv:2501.13828 · cs.AR, cs.LG · submitted Jan 23, 2025
abstract · pdf

add comment on HN