Patent ID: 11907855
Assignee: ARM LIMITED
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A computer implemented method of storing and retrieving feature map data of a neural network the method comprising transferring feature map data between local storage and external storage by:
receiving a first portion of feature map data from the local storage, the first portion of feature map data being representative of a respective first part of a feature map, the feature map having at least height, width and depth dimensions;
selecting a first set of subportions of the first portion of feature map data;
compressing the subportions of feature map data to produce a first plurality of sections of compressed feature map data, each section corresponding to a respective subportion;
instructing the storage of the first plurality of sections of compressed feature map data into the external storage;
receiving a second plurality of sections of compressed feature map data from the external storage, the second plurality of sections corresponding to a second portion of feature map data, the second portion of feature map data being representative of a respective second part of the feature map;
decompressing the second plurality of sections to produce a second set of subportions of the second portion of feature map data; and
storing the second portion of feature map data in local storage,
wherein the first and second sets of subportions each correspond to a predetermined format of subdivision, in terms of height, width and depth, of the feature map and the method comprises selecting the predetermined format of subdivision from a plurality of predetermined formats of subdivision based on a property of a neural network layer associated with the feature map data being transferred, wherein the property of the neural network layer comprises predetermined dimensions of a selection of output feature map data of the neural network layer or a position of the neural network layer within a sequence of neural network layers.