MEPAD: A Memory-Efficient Parallelized Direct Convolution Algorithm for Deep Neural Networks

Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have been successfully used for processing images, videos, sounds, and more generic sensor data for detecting objects, patterns, and events. In this work, we propose MEPAD, a memory-efficient parallelized direct convolution algorithm for CNNs. We compare MEPAD with several approaches for implementing the convolution proposed in the literature, by optimally mapping them on two implementations of the same SIMD target architectures. By taking as use cases the VGG-16 and TinyYOLOv2 CNNs, we focus on optimizing the memory behavior and energy consumption of the algorithm in each layer of the CNNs and show that MEPAD can achieve a reduction of up to 85% in the energy-delay product (EDP) when compared to alternative approaches.