Patent Publication Number: US-10789531-B2

Title: Operation device and related products

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present application relates to an artificial intelligence technical field, and particularly relates to an operation device and related products. 
     BACKGROUND 
     The concept of deep learning stems from studies of artificial neural networks. A multilayer perceptron with multiple hidden layers is a deep-learning structure. By combining with low-level features, the deep learning forms a more abstract high level representing attribute categories or features, to discover a distributed feature representation of data. 
     It is found in practice that the existing deep-learning system usually needs to occupy a large amount of storage resources and operation resources, especially for complex operation, which greatly reduces the system operation efficiency. Therefore, the problem of how to reduce the storage resource and operation resource consumption in the deep learning has to be settled urgently. 
     SUMMARY 
     The embodiments of the present application provide an operation device and related products capable of reducing storage resource and operation resource consumption in the deep learning. 
     In a first aspect, the embodiments of the present invention provides an operation device which comprises a storage unit, an operation unit, and a controller unit, wherein
         the storage unit is configured to store data and instructions;   the controller unit is configured to extract, from the storage unit, a first instruction including sorting instructions or sparse processing instructions and a first data corresponding to the first instruction including input neuron data and weight data;   the operation unit is configured to, in response to the first instruction, perform an operation corresponding to the first instruction on the input neuron data and the weight data, to obtain an operation result.       

     In a second aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide an operation method applied to the operation device which comprises a storage unit, an operation unit, and a controller unit, wherein
         the storage unit is configured to store data and instructions;   the controller unit is configured to extract, from the storage unit, a first instruction including sorting instructions or sparse processing instructions and a first data corresponding to the first instruction including input neuron data and weight data;   the operation unit is configured to, in response to the first instruction, perform an operation corresponding to the first instruction on the input neuron data and the weight data, to obtain an operation result.       

     In a third aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a neural network computing device which includes one or more operation devices according to the first aspect, wherein the neural network computing device is configured to acquire data to be operated and control information from other processing devices, perform specified neural network operation and transmit the execution result to other processing devices through the I/O interface;
         when the neural network computing device contains a plurality of said operation devices, the plurality of operation devices may be connected via a specific structure and transmit data;   wherein, the plurality of operation devices conduct interconnect through Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express (PCI-E or PCIe) PCIE bus and transmit data to support operation on a larger-scale neural network; the plurality of operation devices share the same control system or have their own control systems; the plurality of the operation devices share a memory or have their own memories; and the interconnection manner of the plurality of operation devices is an arbitrary interconnection topology.       

     In a fourth aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a combined processing device which includes the operation device, the universal interconnect interface and other processing devices according to the first aspect. The neural network computing device interacts with other processing devices described above to perform user-specified operations. 
     In a fifth aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a neural network chip which includes the operation device according to the first aspect, the neural network computing device according to the third aspect or the combined processing device according to the fourth aspect. 
     In a sixth aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a neural network chip package structure which includes the neural network chip according to the fifth aspect; 
     In a seventh aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a board card which includes the neural network chip package structure according to the sixth aspect. 
     In an eighth aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide an electronic device which includes the neural network chip according to the sixth aspect or the board card according to the seventh aspect. 
     It can be seen from the solution of the embodiments of the present application that the storage unit stores data and instructions, a controller unit configured to extract, from the storage unit, a first instruction including sorting instructions or sparse processing instructions and a first data corresponding to the first instruction including input neuron data and weight data and the operation unit performs a computing operation corresponding to the first instruction on the input neuron data and the weight data in response to the first instruction to obtain an operation result, thereby reducing the storage resource and operation resource consumption in the deep learning and improving the operation efficiency. 
     In addition, in some embodiments, the electronic device includes a data processing device, a robot, a computer, a printer, a scanner, a tablet PC, an intelligent terminal, a mobile phone, an automobile data recorder, a navigator, a sensor, a camera, a server, a cloud server, a video camera, a projector, a watch, an earphone, a movable storage, a wearable device, a vehicle, a household appliance and/or a medical device. 
     In some embodiments, the vehicle includes an airplane, a ship and/or a car; the household appliance includes a television, an air conditioner, a microwave oven, a refrigerator, a rice cooker, a humidifier, a washing machine, an electric lamp, a gas stove, a range hood; and the medical device includes nuclear magnetic resonance, B-ultrasonic and/or electrocardiographs. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present application, an ordinary person skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings based on these drawings without paying any creative work. 
         FIG. 1  shows a structural schematic diagram of an operation device according to embodiments of the present application; 
         FIG. 2  shows a schematic diagram of a processing of the sparse mode  1  according to embodiments of the present application; 
         FIG. 3  shows another structural schematic diagram of an operation device according to embodiments of the present application; 
         FIG. 4  shows a structural schematic diagram of another operation device according to embodiments of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 5  shows a structural schematic diagram of a master processing circuit according to embodiments of the present application; 
         FIG. 6  shows a schematic diagram of a structure graph of a neural network model provided by an embodiment of the present application; 
         FIG. 7  shows another structural schematic diagram of an operation device according to embodiments of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 8  shows a structural schematic diagram of a combined processing device according to embodiments of the present application; 
         FIG. 9  shows a structural schematic diagram of another combined processing device according to embodiments of the present application. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application are clearly and completely described in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application. It is obvious that the described embodiments are a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by an ordinary person skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present application are all within the protection scope of the present application. 
     The terms “first”, “second”, “third”, “fourth” and the like in the description, the claims and the drawings of the present application are used to distinguish different objects rather than describing a specific order. Furthermore, the terms “include”, “have” and any other transformations intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, product, or device that comprises a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally also includes steps or units not listed or optionally includes other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices. 
     “Embodiments” mentioned herein mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The appearances of the phrases in various places in the specification are not necessarily referring to the same embodiments, nor independent or alternative embodiments that are mutually exclusive to other embodiments. What a person skilled in the art explicitly and implicitly understands is that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments. 
     The operation unit used in the present application will be described at first. Referring to  FIG. 1 , there is an operation device comprising: a storage unit  10 , a controller unit  11  and an operation unit  12 , wherein the controller unit  11  and the storage unit  10  and the operation unit  12 ;
         the storage unit  10  may include a data input/output unit (data I/O unit)  203 ,   the data input/output unit  203  is configured to acquire input data, weight data, a network model, and operation instructions;   the controller unit  11  is configured to extract a first instruction from the storage unit, parse the first instruction to obtain an operation code of the operation instruction and an operation domain, extract input data and weight data corresponding to the operation domain, and the operation code, the input data and the weight data are transmitted to the operation unit, and the operation code includes at least one of the following codes: an operation code of the matrix operation instruction, a vector operation instruction operation code, an activation operation instruction operation code, an offset operation instruction operation code, a convolution operation instruction operation code, a conversion operation instruction operation code and the like;   the operation unit  12  is configured to perform an operation corresponding to the operation code on the input data and the weight data according to the operation code to obtain a result of the first instruction.       

     In an optional embodiment,  FIG. 3  is a variant structure of the operation device as shown in  FIG. 1 , and the operation unit  12  as shown in  FIG. 3  may include a branch processing circuit  1003 ; the specific connection structure is shown in  FIG. 4 , wherein,
         a master processing circuit  1001  is connected to a branch processing circuit  1003 , and the branch processing circuit  1003  is connected to a plurality of slave processing circuit  1002 ;   the branch processing circuit  1003  configured to perform forwarding data or instructions between the master processing circuit  1001  and the slave processing circuit  1002 .       

     In another optional embodiment, the operation unit  12 , as shown in  FIG. 2 , may include a master processing circuit  1001  and a plurality of slave processing circuits from  1002 . In one embodiment, as shown in  FIG. 2 , a plurality of slave processing circuits are assigned in an array; each slave processing circuit is connected to other neighboring slave processing circuits, the master processing circuit is connected to k slave processing circuit of the plurality of slave processing circuits, said K basic circuits are n slave processing circuits in the first line, n slave processing circuits in the m th  line and m slave processing circuits in the first column. 
     K slave processing circuits are configured to forward data and instructions between the master processing circuit and the plurality of slave processing circuits. 
     Optionally, as shown in  FIG. 5 , the master processing circuit may also include one or any combination of a conversion processing circuit  1010 , an activation processing circuit  1011  and an addition processing circuit  1012 ;
         a conversion processing circuit  1010  is configured to perform an interchange between the first data structure and the second data structure (for example, conversion between continuous data and discrete data) on a data block received by the master processing circuit or an intermediate result, or perform an interchange between the first data type and the second data type (for example, conversion between fixed-point type and floating-point type) on a data block or an intermediate result received by the master processing circuit;   the activation processing circuit  1011  is configured to perform activation operations of the data in the master processing circuit;   the addition processing circuit  1012  is configured to perform addition operations or accumulation operations.       

     The master processing circuit is configured to assign an input data to a plurality of data blocks and send at least one of the plurality of data blocks and at least one of the operation instructions to the slave processing circuit;
         the plurality of slave processing circuits are configured to perform operations on the received data blocks according to the operation instruction to obtain an intermediate result and transmit the result of the operation to the master processing circuit;   the master processing circuit is configured to process an intermediate result sent by the plurality of slave processing circuits to obtain a result of that operation instruction and send the result of that operation instruction to the controller unit.       

     The slave processing circuit comprises a multiplication processing circuit; 
     The multiplication processing circuit is configured to perform a multiplication operation on the received data block to obtain a multiplication result;
         a forwarding processing circuit (optionally) is configured to forward the received data block or the multiplication result.   an accumulation processing circuit, the accumulation processing circuit, is used to perform an accumulation operation on the multiplication result to obtain the intermediate result.       

     In another embodiment, the operation instruction is a computation instruction such as a matrix-multiplying-matrix instruction, an accumulation instruction, an activation instruction. The operation device provided by the present application sets up an interconnection unit which connects the calculator combinations in the operation unit according to the need of the operation instruction to obtain a operation topology structure corresponding to the operation instruction, and then it is unnecessary to perform storage or extraction operations on the operated intermediate data in the subsequent operation of the operation unit. This structure realizes an advantage that a single instruction can realize one-time input, that is, can perform a plurality of operations of a calculator and obtain computation results, thereby improving the commutating efficiency. 
     Among them, the data conversion unit  16  obtains a part of nodes in the structure graph from the external of the device, determines whether the node is processed by the operation unit  12  through the controller unit  11 , and if it has been processed, the node is discarded without performing any operation and if it has been processed, the node is performed with a conversion of the node format, and after the conversion is completed, the converted node is written into the storage unit  10 . The controller unit  11  reads the instruction from the external of the operation device and writes it to the storage unit  10  without a conversion. The node of the structure graph (as shown in  FIG. 6  which provides a schematic diagram of the structure graph) obtained from the external of the device for the first time is a source node s, and the node obtained for the i th  time is an adjacent node of the candidate node after the (i−1) th  (i&gt;1) computation and the adjacent node is not processed by the operation unit. Optionally, the node n of the structure graph obtained from the external of the device is converted into the following format:
 
(Addr(before(n)),F(n),n,vis)
         wherein before(n) represents precursor node of the node n, (Addr(before(n)) represents an address of the precursor node of node n in the storage unit  10 , F(n) represents the total cost generated on the path from the source node s to the node n, and n represents the attribute of the node for computing the resulting cost of a single node n, vis represents whether this node has been accessed, for example, it is labeled as 0 if it is not accessed and it is labeled as 1 if it is accessed, and as to the source node before(n), it is n itself, F(n) and vis are both set to 0.       

     A storage unit  10  is configured to acquire the instruction and the converted data from the data conversion unit i.e., data conversion unit  14 , provide data to the operation unit  12 , store the data processed by the operation unit  12 , obtain an approximate optimal path result, and store, and finally write the approximate optimal path result back to the external of the device. 
     An operation unit  12  acquires, from the storage unit  10 , the node with vis=0 in the node information, that is, the node that has not been accessed, and the partial information of the precursor node of this node is integrated into that node to form the following format:
 
(F(before(n)),F(n),n,vis)
         wherein, F(before(n))represents the price-value corresponding to the path of the precursor node from the source node s to n, F(n)=0. In the operation unit, the price-value generated by the node n is operated based on the preset cost function, and then the total price-value F(n)=f(n)+F(before(n) corresponding to the path from the source node to the node n is obtained. At this time, there are m nodes transmitted to the operation unit  12 , respectively n 1 , n 2 , . . . n m , and the price-values F(n 1 ), F(n 2 ), . . . F(n m ) corresponding to m paths can be operated. The corresponding m nodes are sorted in order of the price-value F(n 1 ), F(n 2 ), . . . F(n m ) from small to large to obtain n 1 ′, n 2 ′, . . . n m ′. It is determined whether the path from the source node s to n 1 ′ constitutes a complete approximate optimal path, and if so, an operation termination instruction is transmitted to the controller unit  11 , and the node information (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1) corresponding to n 1 ′ is transmitted to the storage unit  10 . The preset cost function in the embodiments of the present application may be at least one of the following functions: a mean square error cost function, a cross entropy cost function, or a cost function in a neural network.       

     Optionally, it is assumed that the operation device allows the maximum number of candidate nodes to be k. When m&lt;k, the corresponding m nodes can be used as candidate nodes, and the updated (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1) are written into the storage unit  10 ; when m &gt;k, the node information (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1) corresponding to n 1 ′, n 2 ′, . . . n k ′ can be written back to the storage unit  10 . 
     The operation unit  12  can maintain an empty stack inside the unit, and after receiving the integration instruction transmitted by the controller unit  11 , integrate the node information (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1), specifically, push the node n into the stack, and then, acquire the precursor node of the top node of the stack from the storage unit  10  and push it into the stack until before(n) in the information of the top node of the stack is n, that is, the top node of the stack is the source node of the graph. Then, the nodes in the stack continuously pop out of the stack and are transmitted to the storage unit  10  in order, and the sequence of nodes acquired in the storage unit  10  is the approximate optimal path finally obtained. 
     The controller unit  11  acquires an instruction required for the operation through the storage unit  10 , and the storage unit  10  reads the node that was stored from the external of the operation device last time and has not been operated by the operation unit  12 , controls the operation unit  12  to perform the data operation, receives the operation termination instruction transmitted by the operation unit  12 , and controls the data transmission between the operation unit  12  and the storage unit  10 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 7 , the operation unit  12  in  FIG. 7  includes a node distribution unit  41 , a cost function computation unit  42 , a sorting unit  43  and a termination determination unit  44 . 
     Wherein, the node distribution unit  41  assigns the nodes n 1 , n 2 , . . . n m  acquired by the operation unit  12  to the L cost function computation units  42  respectively which computes corresponding path costs, where the first L−1 cost function computation units assign [m/L] nodes respectively, the Lth cost function computation units assign m−[m/L] nodes, where “[ ]” indicates rounding up. 
     As shown in  FIG. 7 , there are L cost function computation units in total, and each cost function computation unit  42  can realize the price-value from the source node to the corresponding path independently. Each cost function computation unit  42  computes the node assigned by the node distribution unit  41  to obtain the corresponding node number-path price-value pairs (n 1 , F(n 1 )), (n 2 , F(n 2 )), . . . (n m , F(n m )), compute the cost of the path function according to actual needs, set up by the controller unit  11 , then, transmit the operated node number-path price-value pairs (n 1 , F(n 1 )), (n 2 , F(n 2 )), . . . (n m , F(n m )) to the sorting unit  43 . 
     Optionally, the cost function computation unit may include a multiplier and an adder. 
     The sorting unit  43  sorts the node number-path cost value pairs (n 1 , F(n 1 )), (n 2 , F(n 2 )), . . . (n m , F(n m )) of each node obtained from the cost function computation unit  32  according to the cost value of the path from small to large to obtain the sorted node number-path cost value pairs (n 1 ′, F(n 1 ))′, (n 2 ′, F(n 2 ))′, . . . (n m ′, F(n m )′) and then transmit them to the termination determination unit  34 . 
     The termination determination unit  44  obtains the sorted node number-path cost value pairs from the sorting unit  43  and determines whether the approximate optimal path has been obtained according to (n 1 ′, F(n 1 ))′, where the method to determine whether the approximate optimal path has been obtained is set by the controller unit  11  according to the actual problem. If the approximate optimal path has been obtained, the termination determination unit  34  sends the operation termination instruction to the controller unit  11  and sends the node information (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1) corresponding to n 1 ′ to the result storage unit  11 . Otherwise, assuming that the maximum number of candidate nodes allowed by the device is k, if m≤k, the corresponding m nodes, which are all taken as candidate nodes, write the updated (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1) back to the storage unit  10 ; if m&gt;k, write the node information (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1) corresponding to n 1 ′, n 2 ′, . . . n k ′ back to the storage unit  10 . 
     For example, an optimal path searching method is provided as follows: 
     Step 1: obtaining the operation instructions required for the operation from the external of the operation device, storing them in the storage unit  10  through a data conversion unit  16  and transmitting them to the controller unit  11 . 
     Step 2: transmitting some nodes in the original graph to data conversion unit  16  from the external of the operation device, and the structure diagram external the device can be adjacency list, adjacency matrix, vertex pairs or other forms, where only the source node s was transmitted at the first transmission, and the nodes which are then transmitted to the data transmission unit  1  are adjacent nodes that have not been processed by the operation unit  12  of the candidate node screened by the operation unit  12  last time. In this process, the controller unit  11  determines whether the corresponding nodes have been processed by operator unit  12 . The data conversion unit  16  converts the transmitted nodes in a format (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, vis) and transmits them to the storage unit  10 . 
     In step 3, the controller unit  11  controlling the operation unit  12  to acquire the unprocessed nodes n 1 , n 2 , . . . n m  that are transmitted by the data conversion unit  16  from the storage unit  10  and integrating the information of each node and the precursor node to obtain the nodes in a format of (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, vis); then the operation unit  12  obtaining the total price-value F(n)=f(n)+F(before(n)) corresponding to the path from the source node to node n based on the price-value f(n) resulted by the preset cost function computing the node n. Computing the price-values F(n 1 ), F(n 2 ), . . . F(n m ) corresponding to m paths respectively, obtaining n 1 ′, n 2 ′, . . . n m ′ by sorting the corresponding m nodes in an order of the price-value F(n 1 ), F(n 2 ), . . . F(n m ) from small to large, and determining whether the path from the source node s to n 1 ′ constitutes a complete approximate optimal path. If so, send an operation termination instruction to the controller unit  11  and transmit the node information (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1) corresponding to n 1 ′ to the storage unit  10 , and goes to step 4. Otherwise, assuming that the maximum number of candidate nodes allowed by the device is k, if m≤k, the corresponding m nodes are all taken as candidate nodes to write the updated (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1) to the storage unit  10 ; if m&gt;k, write the node information (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1) corresponding to n 1 ′, n 2 ′, . . . n k ′ back to the storage unit  10 , and goes to step 2. 
     In step 4, after receiving the operation termination instruction from the operation unit  12 , the controller unit  11  determines whether the result storage unit  11  has obtained node information from the operation unit  12 , and if the node information is not obtained, the determination is circularly made until the node information is obtained; the result storage unit  11  maintains an empty stack within the unit, and after the operation result is obtained, pushes the node information (Addr(before(n)), F(n), n, 1) received from the operation unit  12  into the stack; the precursor node of the top node of the stack is obtained from the storage unit  10  and is pressed into the stack, which is repeated until before(n) in the information of the top node of the stack is n, that is, the top node of the stack is the source node of the graph. Then the storage unit  10  continuously pushing the nodes out of the stack and sending them into the storage unit  10  in order, and then the sequence of nodes obtained in the storage unit  10  is the approximate optimal path finally obtained. 
     In step 5, the storage unit  10 , under control of the controller unit  11 , obtains an approximate optimal path from the storage unit  10  and transmits it to the external of the device. 
     Find an approximate optimal path that can satisfy the conditions by using the embodiments of the present application to search the structure graphs can reduce the waste of space effectively and improves the efficiency of time, and in the process of computing the cost of path, performing computation by using a plurality of cost function computation units at the same time can improve the parallelism of computation. 
     It should be explained that the above operation device can not only perform sparse neural network operations but also perform dense neural network operations. The above device is especially suitable for sparse neural network operations because there are many data with zero value or small absolute value in the sparse neural network. These data can be presented by the mapping unit, and the efficiency of operation can be improved if the accuracy of operation is guaranteed. 
     It should be pointed out that the input neurons and operation results (or output neurons) mentioned in the embodiments of the present application do not refer to neurons in the input layer and neurons in the output layer of the whole neural network, but for any adjacent two layers of neurons in the neural network, the neurons in the lower layer of the network feedforward operation is the input neurons, the neurons in the upper layer of the network feedforward operation is the operation result. Taking the convolution neural network as an example, and assuming that a convolution neural network has L layers, K=1,2,3 . . . L−1. For the layer K and the layer K+1, the layer K is called the input layer, and the neurons in this layer are the above input neurons, and the layer K+1 is called the input layer. The neurons in this layer are the above operation results, that is, except the top layer, each layer can be the input layer, and the next layer is the corresponding output layer. 
     Each of the above units may be a hardware circuit including a digital circuit, an analog circuit, or the like. Physical implementations of the hardware circuit include, but are not limited to, physical devices including, but not limited to, transistors, memristors and the like. The computation unit in the above neural network computing module may be any suitable hardware processor such as a CPU, GPU, FPGA, DSP, ASIC and the like. The above storage unit, the instruction buffering unit, the first input buffer unit, the second input buffer unit and the output buffer unit may be any suitable magnetic storage medium or magneto-optical storage medium, such as RRAM, DRAM, SRAM, EDRAM, HBM, HMC and the like. 
     In a possible embodiment, the embodiment of the present application provides a neural network computing device, where the neural network computing device includes one or more neural network operation modules according to the embodiments for acquiring data to be operated and control information from other processing devices, performing the specified neural network operation, and transmitting the execution result to other processing devices through an I/O interface;
         when the neural network computing device includes a plurality of the neural network operation modules, the plurality of the neural network operation modules may connect through a specific structure and transmit data;   wherein the plurality of operation devices interconnect through the PCIE bus to support operations of a larger-scale neural network and transmit data; the plurality of operation devices share the same control system or have respective control systems and the devices share a memory or have their own memories; the interconnection manner of the plurality of operation devices is an arbitrary interconnection topology.       

     The neural network computing device has high compatibility and can be connected to various types of servers through a PCIE interface. 
     In a possible embodiment, the embodiments of the present application provide a combined processing device including the above-described neural network computing device, a universal interconnection interface and other processing devices. 
     The neural network computing device interacts with other processing devices to perform user-specified operations. Referring to  FIG. 8 ,  FIG. 8  shows a schematic structural diagram of a combined processing apparatus according to embodiments of the present application. As shown in  FIG. 8 , the combined processing device includes the above-described neural network computing device  1601 , universal interconnect interface  1602 , and other processing devices  1603 . 
     The above other processing device  1603  includes a processor type of one or more of a general-purpose/dedicated processor such as a central processing unit, a graphics processing unit (GPU) and a neural network processor. The number of processors included in the other processing device  1603  is not limited. The other processing device  1603  serving as an interface between the neural network computing device  1601  and the external data and the control includes data moving, completing basic control such as starting and stopping of the neural network computing device; the other processing device  1603  can also cooperate with the neural network computing device  1601  to complete the operation task. 
     The above universal interconnect interface  1602  is configured to transmit data and control instructions between the neural network computing device  1601  and other processing devices  1603 . The neural network computing device  1601  obtains the required input data from other processing devices  1603  to write the storage device on the chip of the neural network computing device  1601 , acquire the control instruction from other processing device  1603  to write in the control buffer on the chip of the neural network computing device  1601  and data in the storage device of the neural network computing device  1601  can also be read to transmit to other processing devices  1603 . 
     Optionally, as shown in  FIG. 9 , the above combined processing device further includes a storage device  1604  configured to store data required by the present operation unit/operation device or other operation units and is particularly suitable for the data required to be computed but cannot be completely stored in the internal memory of the present network operation device  1601  or other processing device  1603 . 
     The above combination device can be used as an on-chip system for smart devices such as mobile phones, robots, and drones, effectively reducing the core area of the control portion, increasing the processing speed and reducing the overall power consumption. 
     In a possible embodiment, the embodiments of the present application provide a neural network chip which includes the operation device described in any of the illustrated embodiments or the above-described neural network computing device or the combined processing device. 
     In a possible embodiment, the embodiments of the present application provide a neural network chip package structure which includes the above neural network chip. 
     In a possible embodiment, the embodiments of the present application provide a board card which includes the above neural network chip package structure. 
     In a possible embodiment, the embodiments of the present application provide an electronic device including the above-mentioned board card. 
     The electronic device includes a data processing device, a robot, a computer, a printer, a scanner, a tablet, a smart terminal, a mobile phone, a driving recorder, a navigator, a sensor, a camera, a cloud server, a camera, a camera, a projector, and a watch, headsets, a removable storage, a wearable device vehicle, a household appliance, and/or a medical device. 
     The above-mentioned transportation includes airplanes, ships and/or vehicles; the above-mentioned household appliances include televisions, air conditioners, microwave ovens, refrigerators, rice cookers, humidifiers, washing machines, electric lights, gas stoves, range hoods; the medical equipment includes nuclear magnetic resonance instruments, B-mode ultrasound instrument and/or electrocardiograph. 
     The embodiments of the present application further provide a computer storage medium, wherein the computer storage medium may store a program, and the program includes some or all of the steps of any one of the neural network operation methods according to the method embodiments. It should be noted that, for the foregoing method embodiments, for the sake of brevity, they are all described as a series of action combinations, but those skilled in the art should understand that the present application is not limited by the described action sequence. It is because certain steps may be performed in other sequences or concurrently in accordance with the present application. Secondly, those skilled in the art should also understand that the embodiments described in the specification are optional embodiments, and the actions and modules involved are not necessarily required by the present application. 
     In the above embodiments, the descriptions of the various embodiments are all focused on, and the parts that are not detailed in a certain embodiment can be referred to the related descriptions of other embodiments. 
     In the several embodiments provided herein, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus may be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely illustrative, for example, the division of the unit is only a logical function division and there may be another division manner in the actual implementation, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not performed. In addition, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be electrical or other forms. 
     The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, may be located in one place, or may be assigned to multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment. 
     In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit. The above integrated unit can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of a software program module. 
     The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software program module and sold or used as a standalone product, may be stored in a computer readable memory. Based on such an understanding, the technical solution of the present application, in essence or the contribution to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a memory. A number of instructions are included to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server or network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present application. The foregoing memory includes: a U disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a removable hard disk, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, and the like which can store program codes. 
     An ordinary person skilled in the art can understand that all or part of the steps of various methods of the above embodiments can be implemented by a program to instruct related hardware, the program can be stored in a computer readable memory, and the memory may include a flash disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), disk or CD and the like. 
     The embodiments of the present application have been described in detail. The principles and implementations of the present application are described in the specific examples, and the description of the above embodiments is only used to help to understand the method and core ideas of the present application; meanwhile, a person skilled in the art may have a change in the specific embodiments and the scope of application according to the idea of the present application. In summary, the content of the present specification should not be construed as limiting the present application.