Neural network inference circuit with piecewise linear activation circuit

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a neural network inference circuit for executing a neural network that includes computation nodes. Each respective computation node of a set of the computation nodes includes (i) a respective linear function that includes a respective dot product of input values for the computation node and weight values for the computation node and (ii) a respective non-linear activation function. The neural network inference circuit includes a set of dot product circuits to compute the dot product for a computation node and a post-processing circuit to compute (i) a result of the linear function for the computation node based on the dot product for the computation node and (ii) an output for the computation node by applying a piecewise linear function to the result of the linear function for the computation node to apply the non-linear activation function for the computation node.

CPC Classifications