Patent ID: 11880769
Assignee: ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A system that performs training operations for a neural network, comprising:
a processor;
a memory;
an analog circuit element functional block that includes an array of analog circuit elements; and
controller circuits;
wherein the processor is configured to perform initial iterations of a neural network training operation, each initial iteration including using neural network data acquired from the memory for processing a corresponding instance of input data through the neural network to generate an output of the neural network;
wherein the controller circuits are configured to:
monitor error values computed using the outputs from the initial iterations;
when one or more error values are less than a threshold, switch from using the processor to using the analog circuit element functional block for performing remaining iterations of the neural network training operation, the switching including setting conductances of programmable elements in the array of analog circuit elements based at least in part on a value of respective neural network data; and
cause the analog circuit element functional block to perform the remaining iterations, the performing including, for each remaining iteration, using the conductances of the programmable elements for computing an output of the neural network and updating the conductances of the programmable elements based on the output of the neural network.