Patent Publication Number: US-2022222584-A1

Title: Heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     Embodiments described herein generally relate to artificial intelligence model partitioning and, in some embodiments, more specifically to heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) functionality using edge and client devices has been increasing rapidly with the advent of different types of low-power hardware accelerators like integrated and low-end discrete graphics processing units (GPUs), vision processing units (VPUs), neural processing units (NPUs), etc. Edge platforms typically consist of several heterogenous compute units on the same device (e.g., using on-chip integrated technologies, attached as peripherals, etc.). Due to the presence of multiple compute units on the same platform, large compute-intensive artificial intelligence (AI) models may be deployed where the models may be partitioned efficiently across compute units and executed simultaneously. Devices may have different features such as precision, sparsity, compute efficiency, etc. that determine the actual compute while running the model on a device. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. Like numerals having different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. The drawings illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the present document. 
         FIG. 1  illustrates an overview of an edge cloud configuration for edge computing. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates operational layers among endpoints, an edge cloud, and cloud computing environments. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates an example approach for networking and services in an edge computing system. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates deployment of a virtual edge configuration in an edge computing system operated among multiple edge nodes and multiple tenants. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates various compute arrangements deploying containers in an edge computing system. 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a compute and communication use case involving mobile access to applications in an edge computing system. 
         FIG. 7A  provides an overview of example components for compute deployed at a compute node in an edge computing system. 
         FIG. 7B  provides a further overview of example components within a computing device in an edge computing system. 
         FIG. 7C  illustrates an example software distribution platform to distribute software to one or more devices. 
         FIG. 8  is a flow diagram of an example of a system for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning, according to an embodiment. 
         FIG. 9  illustrates an example of a process for calculating compute for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning, according to an embodiment. 
         FIG. 10  illustrates an example of a process for calculating compute normalization for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning, according to an embodiment. 
         FIG. 11  illustrates an example of a method for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning, according to an embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Conventional techniques for partitioning AI models do not consider these factors for partitioning and executing the AI models in an optimized fashion to reduce the model load and compile latency and to improve execution time and throughput on an edge device with heterogeneous accelerators. Conventional inference servers do not partition AI models heterogeneously. Rather, full model instances are created on a central processing unit (CPU) and GPU separately and are deployed simultaneously. Conventional inference server approaches do not leverage any model partitioning. 
     Heterogeneous plugins query device backends for layer support and may support fallback of unsupported layers to other devices in a configuration manually provided to the plugin. A subgraph (e.g., portion of a graph network) is processed by a device until an unsupported layer is encountered by the device, remaining layers execute on subsequent devices with a similar logic until the subgraph is processed using devices that support each layer. The plugin allows users to specify multiple devices in a configuration across which the model may be partitioned. Conventional heterogeneous plugin approaches do not use smart logic to balance computation across devices. Other conventional plugins support fallback of unsupported subgraphs to default framework technologies. These other conventional plugins allow subgraphs supported by the plugins to run inference on the backend devices. The unsupported subgraphs fallback to default framework runtimes. Conventional subgraph partitioning also does not use smart logic to balance computation across devices. 
     Conventional AI model partitioning approaches may operate on framework models. These conventional approaches operate on framework models and use compute-intensive dynamic programming methodology to determine the partitioning. These conventional approaches may use tensor (e.g., vectors, matrices, arrays, etc.) partitioning and not model partitioning or may use a compute-intensive algorithm to find partitioning that is not suitable for edge nodes and models with dynamic shapes. 
     The systems and techniques discussed herein provide AI model partitioning by taking the AI model as an input, converting it to intermediate representation (IR) following target-independent graph optimizations, characterizing the compute and sparsity present in the model, and normalizing the model using device-specific compute metrics like precision factor, compute efficiency, and theoretical maximum compute of the hardware present on the edge device to identify the most effective (maximizing performance, compute economization, etc.) partitioning of the model. The compute analysis and decisions are made on the IR of the model to enable stickiness and differentiation for edge platforms. 
     The systems and techniques discussed herein provide the increased model execution performance with low latency for AI models using an edge device with heterogeneous accelerators. Partitioning is optimized for AI workloads on an edge node with heterogeneous accelerators by analyzing the compute present in the models unlike existing inference stacks and solutions with heterogeneous distribution that deploy full models or have a naïve method of heterogeneous distribution for inference on devices. Because edge devices and accelerators have limited compute and memory, the models may not fit on edge devices or may result in high model load latency and a performance drop. To address this technical challenge, the intermediate representation of the model graph is analyzed for compute and then partitions/subgraphs are identified to schedule across heterogeneous accelerator compute units present in the edge nodes. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram  100  showing an overview of a configuration for edge computing, which includes a layer of processing referred to in many of the following examples as an “edge cloud”. As shown, the edge cloud  110  is co-located at an edge location, such as an access point or base station  140 , a local processing hub  150 , or a central office  120 , and thus may include multiple entities, devices, and equipment instances. The edge cloud  110  is located much closer to the endpoint (consumer and producer) data sources  160  (e.g., autonomous vehicles  161 , user equipment  162 , business and industrial equipment  163 , video capture devices  164 , drones  165 , smart cities and building devices  166 , sensors and IoT devices  167 , etc.) than the cloud data center  130 . Compute, memory, and storage resources which are offered at the edges in the edge cloud  110  are critical to providing ultra-low latency response times for services and functions used by the endpoint data sources  160  as well as reduce network backhaul traffic from the edge cloud  110  toward cloud data center  130  thus improving energy consumption and overall network usages among other benefits. 
     Compute, memory, and storage are scarce resources, and generally decrease depending on the edge location (e.g., fewer processing resources being available at consumer endpoint devices, than at a base station, than at a central office). However, the closer that the edge location is to the endpoint (e.g., user equipment (UE)), the more that space and power is often constrained. Thus, edge computing attempts to reduce the amount of resources needed for network services, through the distribution of more resources which are located closer both geographically and in network access time. In this manner, edge computing attempts to bring the compute resources to the workload data where appropriate, or, bring the workload data to the compute resources. 
     The following describes aspects of an edge cloud architecture that covers multiple potential deployments and addresses restrictions that some network operators or service providers may have in their own infrastructures. These include, variation of configurations based on the edge location (because edges at a base station level, for instance, may have more constrained performance and capabilities in a multi-tenant scenario); configurations based on the type of compute, memory, storage, fabric, acceleration, or like resources available to edge locations, tiers of locations, or groups of locations; the service, security, and management and orchestration capabilities; and related objectives to achieve usability and performance of end services. These deployments may accomplish processing in network layers that may be considered as “near edge”, “close edge”, “local edge”, “middle edge”, or “far edge” layers, depending on latency, distance, and timing characteristics. 
     Edge computing is a developing paradigm where computing is performed at or closer to the “edge” of a network, typically through the use of a compute platform (e.g., x86 or ARM compute hardware architecture) implemented at base stations, gateways, network routers, or other devices which are much closer to endpoint devices producing and consuming the data. For example, edge gateway servers may be equipped with pools of memory and storage resources to perform computation in real-time for low latency use-cases (e.g., autonomous driving or video surveillance) for connected client devices. Or as an example, base stations may be augmented with compute and acceleration resources to directly process service workloads for connected user equipment, without further communicating data via backhaul networks. Or as another example, central office network management hardware may be replaced with standardized compute hardware that performs virtualized network functions and offers compute resources for the execution of services and consumer functions for connected devices. Within edge computing networks, there may be scenarios in services which the compute resource will be “moved” to the data, as well as scenarios in which the data will be “moved” to the compute resource. Or as an example, base station compute, acceleration and network resources can provide services in order to scale to workload demands on an as needed basis by activating dormant capacity (subscription, capacity on demand) in order to manage corner cases, emergencies or to provide longevity for deployed resources over a significantly longer implemented lifecycle. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates operational layers among endpoints, an edge cloud, and cloud computing environments. Specifically,  FIG. 2  depicts examples of computational use cases  205 , utilizing the edge cloud  110  among multiple illustrative layers of network computing. The layers begin at an endpoint (devices and things) layer  200 , which accesses the edge cloud  110  to conduct data creation, analysis, and data consumption activities. The edge cloud  110  may span multiple network layers, such as an edge devices layer  210  having gateways, on-premise servers, or network equipment (nodes  215 ) located in physically proximate edge systems; a network access layer  220 , encompassing base stations, radio processing units, network hubs, regional data centers (DC), or local network equipment (equipment  225 ); and any equipment, devices, or nodes located therebetween (in layer  212 , not illustrated in detail). The network communications within the edge cloud  110  and among the various layers may occur via any number of wired or wireless mediums, including via connectivity architectures and technologies not depicted. 
     Examples of latency, resulting from network communication distance and processing time constraints, may range from less than a millisecond (ms) when among the endpoint layer  200 , under 5 ms at the edge devices layer  210 , to even between 10 to 40 ms when communicating with nodes at the network access layer  220 . Beyond the edge cloud  110  are core network  230  and cloud data center  240  layers, each with increasing latency (e.g., between 50-60 ms at the core network layer  230 , to 100 or more ms at the cloud data center layer). As a result, operations at a core network data center  235  or a cloud data center  245 , with latencies of at least 50 to 100 ms or more, will not be able to accomplish many time-critical functions of the use cases  205 . Each of these latency values are provided for purposes of illustration and contrast; it will be understood that the use of other access network mediums and technologies may further reduce the latencies. In some examples, respective portions of the network may be categorized as “close edge”, “local edge”, “near edge”, “middle edge”, or “far edge” layers, relative to a network source and destination. For instance, from the perspective of the core network data center  235  or a cloud data center  245 , a central office or content data network may be considered as being located within a “near edge” layer (“near” to the cloud, having high latency values when communicating with the devices and endpoints of the use cases  205 ), whereas an access point, base station, on-premise server, or network gateway may be considered as located within a “far edge” layer (“far” from the cloud, having low latency values when communicating with the devices and endpoints of the use cases  205 ). It will be understood that other categorizations of a particular network layer as constituting a “close”, “local”, “near”, “middle”, or “far” edge may be based on latency, distance, number of network hops, or other measurable characteristics, as measured from a source in any of the network layers  200 - 240 . 
     The various use cases  205  may access resources under usage pressure from incoming streams, due to multiple services utilizing the edge cloud. To achieve results with low latency, the services executed within the edge cloud  110  balance varying requirements in terms of: (a) Priority (throughput and/or latency) and Quality of Service (QoS) (e.g., traffic for an autonomous car may have higher priority than a temperature sensor in terms of response time requirement; or, a performance sensitivity/bottleneck may exist at a compute/accelerator, memory, storage, or network resource, depending on the application); (b) Reliability and Resiliency (e.g., some input streams need to be acted upon and the traffic routed with mission-critical reliability, where as some other input streams may be tolerate an occasional failure, depending on the application); and (c) Physical constraints (e.g., power, cooling and form-factor). 
     The end-to-end service view for these use cases involves the concept of a service-flow and is associated with a transaction. The transaction details the overall service requirement for the entity consuming the service, as well as the associated services for the resources, workloads, workflows, and business functional and business level requirements. The services executed with the “terms” described may be managed at each layer in a way to assure real time, and runtime contractual compliance for the transaction during the lifecycle of the service. When a component in the transaction is missing its agreed to Service Level Agreement (SLA), the system as a whole (components in the transaction) may provide the ability to (1) understand the impact of the SLA violation, and (2) augment other components in the system to resume overall transaction SLA, and (3) implement steps to remediate. 
     Thus, with these variations and service features in mind, edge computing within the edge cloud  110  may provide the ability to serve and respond to multiple applications of the use cases  205  (e.g., object tracking, video surveillance, connected cars, etc.) in real-time or near real-time, and meet ultra-low latency requirements for these multiple applications. These advantages enable a whole new class of applications (Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), Function as a Service (FaaS), Edge as a Service (EaaS), standard processes, etc.), which cannot leverage conventional cloud computing due to latency or other limitations. 
     However, with the advantages of edge computing comes the following caveats. The devices located at the edge are often resource constrained and therefore there is pressure on usage of edge resources. Typically, this is addressed through the pooling of memory and storage resources for use by multiple users (tenants) and devices. The edge may be power and cooling constrained and therefore the power usage needs to be accounted for by the applications that are consuming the most power. There may be inherent power-performance tradeoffs in these pooled memory resources, as many of them are likely to use emerging memory technologies, where more power requires greater memory bandwidth. Likewise, improved security of hardware and functions trusted by a root of trust are also required, because edge locations may be unmanned and may even need permissioned access (e.g., when housed in a third-party location). Such issues are magnified in the edge cloud  110  in a multi-tenant, multi-owner, or multi-access setting, where services and applications are requested by many users, especially as network usage dynamically fluctuates and the composition of the multiple stakeholders, use cases, and services changes. 
     At a more generic level, an edge computing system may be described to encompass any number of deployments at the previously discussed layers operating in the edge cloud  110  (network layers  200 - 240 ), which provide coordination from client and distributed computing devices. One or more edge gateway nodes, one or more edge aggregation nodes, and one or more core data centers may be distributed across layers of the network to provide an implementation of the edge computing system by or on behalf of a telecommunication service provider (“telco”, or “TSP”), internet-of-things service provider, cloud service provider (CSP), enterprise entity, or any other number of entities. Various implementations and configurations of the edge computing system may be provided dynamically, such as when orchestrated to meet service objectives. 
     Consistent with the examples provided herein, a client compute node may be embodied as any type of endpoint component, device, appliance, or other thing capable of communicating as a producer or consumer of data. Further, the label “node” or “device” as used in the edge computing system does not necessarily mean that such node or device operates in a client or agent/minion/follower role; rather, any of the nodes or devices in the edge computing system refer to individual entities, nodes, or subsystems which include discrete or connected hardware or software configurations to facilitate or use the edge cloud  110 . 
     As such, the edge cloud  110  is formed from network components and functional features operated by and within edge gateway nodes, edge aggregation nodes, or other edge compute nodes among network layers  210 - 230 . The edge cloud  110  thus may be embodied as any type of network that provides edge computing and/or storage resources which are proximately located to radio access network (RAN) capable endpoint devices (e.g., mobile computing devices, IoT devices, smart devices, etc.), which are discussed herein. In other words, the edge cloud  110  may be envisioned as an “edge” which connects the endpoint devices and traditional network access points that serve as an ingress point into service provider core networks, including mobile carrier networks (e.g., Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks, Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks, New Radio (NR)/5G networks, 6G networks, etc.), while also providing storage and/or compute capabilities. Other types and forms of network access (e.g., Wi-Fi, long-range wireless, wired networks including optical networks) may also be utilized in place of or in combination with such 3GPP carrier networks. 
     The network components of the edge cloud  110  may be servers, multi-tenant servers, appliance computing devices, and/or any other type of computing devices. For example, the edge cloud  110  may include an appliance computing device that is a self-contained electronic device including a housing, a chassis, a case or a shell. In some circumstances, the housing may be dimensioned for portability such that it can be carried by a human and/or shipped. Example housings may include materials that form one or more exterior surfaces that partially or fully protect contents of the appliance, in which protection may include weather protection, hazardous environment protection (e.g., EMI, vibration, extreme temperatures), and/or enable submergibility. Example housings may include power circuitry to provide power for stationary and/or portable implementations, such as AC power inputs, DC power inputs, AC/DC or DC/AC converter(s), power regulators, transformers, charging circuitry, batteries, wired inputs and/or wireless power inputs. Example housings and/or surfaces thereof may include or connect to mounting hardware to enable attachment to structures such as buildings, telecommunication structures (e.g., poles, antenna structures, etc.) and/or racks (e.g., server racks, blade mounts, etc.). Example housings and/or surfaces thereof may support one or more sensors (e.g., temperature sensors, vibration sensors, light sensors, acoustic sensors, capacitive sensors, proximity sensors, etc.). One or more such sensors may be contained in, carried by, or otherwise embedded in the surface and/or mounted to the surface of the appliance. Example housings and/or surfaces thereof may support mechanical connectivity, such as propulsion hardware (e.g., wheels, propellers, etc.) and/or articulating hardware (e.g., robot arms, pivotable appendages, etc.). In some circumstances, the sensors may include any type of input devices such as user interface hardware (e.g., buttons, switches, dials, sliders, etc.). In some circumstances, example housings include output devices contained in, carried by, embedded therein and/or attached thereto. Output devices may include displays, touchscreens, lights, LEDs, speakers, I/O ports (e.g., USB), etc. In some circumstances, edge devices are devices presented in the network for a specific purpose (e.g., a traffic light), but may have processing and/or other capacities that may be utilized for other purposes. Such edge devices may be independent from other networked devices and may be provided with a housing having a form factor suitable for its primary purpose; yet be available for other compute tasks that do not interfere with its primary task. Edge devices include Internet of Things devices. The appliance computing device may include hardware and software components to manage local issues such as device temperature, vibration, resource utilization, updates, power issues, physical and network security, etc. Example hardware for implementing an appliance computing device is described in conjunction with  FIG. 7B . The edge cloud  110  may also include one or more servers and/or one or more multi-tenant servers. Such a server may include an operating system and a virtual computing environment. A virtual computing environment may include a hypervisor managing (spawning, deploying, destroying, etc.) one or more virtual machines, one or more containers, etc. Such virtual computing environments provide an execution environment in which one or more applications and/or other software, code or scripts may execute while being isolated from one or more other applications, software, code or scripts. 
     In  FIG. 3 , various client endpoints  310  (in the form of mobile devices, computers, autonomous vehicles, business computing equipment, industrial processing equipment) exchange requests and responses that are specific to the type of endpoint network aggregation. For instance, client endpoints  310  may obtain network access via a wired broadband network, by exchanging requests and responses  322  through an on-premise network system  332 . Some client endpoints  310 , such as mobile computing devices, may obtain network access via a wireless broadband network, by exchanging requests and responses  324  through an access point (e.g., cellular network tower)  334 . Some client endpoints  310 , such as autonomous vehicles may obtain network access for requests and responses  326  via a wireless vehicular network through a street-located network system  336 . However, regardless of the type of network access, the TSP may deploy aggregation points  342 ,  344  within the edge cloud  110  to aggregate traffic and requests. Thus, within the edge cloud  110 , the TSP may deploy various compute and storage resources, such as at edge aggregation nodes  340 , to provide requested content. The edge aggregation nodes  340  and other systems of the edge cloud  110  are connected to a cloud or data center  360 , which uses a backhaul network  350  to fulfill higher-latency requests from a cloud/data center for websites, applications, database servers, etc. Additional or consolidated instances of the edge aggregation nodes  340  and the aggregation points  342 ,  344 , including those deployed on a single server framework, may also be present within the edge cloud  110  or other areas of the TSP infrastructure. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates deployment and orchestration for virtual edge configurations across an edge computing system operated among multiple edge nodes and multiple tenants. Specifically,  FIG. 4  depicts coordination of a first edge node  422  and a second edge node  424  in an edge computing system  400 , to fulfill requests and responses for various client endpoints  410  (e.g., smart cities/building systems, mobile devices, computing devices, business/logistics systems, industrial systems, etc.), which access various virtual edge instances. Here, the virtual edge instances  432 ,  434  provide edge compute capabilities and processing in an edge cloud, with access to a cloud/data center  440  for higher-latency requests for websites, applications, database servers, etc. However, the edge cloud enables coordination of processing among multiple edge nodes for multiple tenants or entities. 
     In the example of  FIG. 4 , these virtual edge instances include: a first virtual edge  432 , offered to a first tenant (Tenant 1), which offers a first combination of edge storage, computing, and services; and a second virtual edge  434 , offering a second combination of edge storage, computing, and services. The virtual edge instances  432 ,  434  are distributed among the edge nodes  422 ,  424 , and may include scenarios in which a request and response are fulfilled from the same or different edge nodes. The configuration of the edge nodes  422 ,  424  to operate in a distributed yet coordinated fashion occurs based on edge provisioning functions  450 . The functionality of the edge nodes  422 ,  424  to provide coordinated operation for applications and services, among multiple tenants, occurs based on orchestration functions  460 . 
     It should be understood that some of the devices in  410  are multi-tenant devices where Tenant 1 may function within a tenant1 ‘slice’ while a Tenant 2 may function within a tenant2 slice (and, in further examples, additional or sub-tenants may exist; and each tenant may even be specifically entitled and transactionally tied to a specific set of features all the way day to specific hardware features). A trusted multi-tenant device may further contain a tenant specific cryptographic key such that the combination of key and slice may be considered a “root of trust” (RoT) or tenant specific RoT. A RoT may further be computed dynamically composed using a DICE (Device Identity Composition Engine) architecture such that a single DICE hardware building block may be used to construct layered trusted computing base contexts for layering of device capabilities (such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)). The RoT may further be used for a trusted computing context to enable a “fan-out” that is useful for supporting multi-tenancy. Within a multi-tenant environment, the respective edge nodes  422 ,  424  may operate as security feature enforcement points for local resources allocated to multiple tenants per node. Additionally, tenant runtime and application execution (e.g., in instances  432 ,  434 ) may serve as an enforcement point for a security feature that creates a virtual edge abstraction of resources spanning potentially multiple physical hosting platforms. Finally, the orchestration functions  460  at an orchestration entity may operate as a security feature enforcement point for marshalling resources along tenant boundaries. 
     Edge computing nodes may partition resources (memory, central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), interrupt controller, input/output (I/O) controller, memory controller, bus controller, etc.) where respective partitionings may contain a RoT capability and where fan-out and layering according to a DICE model may further be applied to Edge Nodes. Cloud computing nodes consisting of containers, FaaS engines, Servlets, servers, or other computation abstraction may be partitioned according to a DICE layering and fan-out structure to support a RoT context for each. Accordingly, the respective RoTs spanning devices  410 ,  422 , and  440  may coordinate the establishment of a distributed trusted computing base (DTCB) such that a tenant-specific virtual trusted secure channel linking all elements end to end can be established. 
     Further, it will be understood that a container may have data or workload specific keys protecting its content from a previous edge node. As part of migration of a container, a pod controller at a source edge node may obtain a migration key from a target edge node pod controller where the migration key is used to wrap the container-specific keys. When the container/pod is migrated to the target edge node, the unwrapping key is exposed to the pod controller that then decrypts the wrapped keys. The keys may now be used to perform operations on container specific data. The migration functions may be gated by properly attested edge nodes and pod managers (as described above). 
     In further examples, an edge computing system is extended to provide for orchestration of multiple applications through the use of containers (a contained, deployable unit of software that provides code and needed dependencies) in a multi-owner, multi-tenant environment. A multi-tenant orchestrator may be used to perform key management, trust anchor management, and other security functions related to the provisioning and lifecycle of the trusted ‘slice’ concept in  FIG. 4 . For instance, an edge computing system may be configured to fulfill requests and responses for various client endpoints from multiple virtual edge instances (and, from a cloud or remote data center). The use of these virtual edge instances may support multiple tenants and multiple applications (e.g., augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), enterprise applications, content delivery, gaming, compute offload) simultaneously. Further, there may be multiple types of applications within the virtual edge instances (e.g., normal applications; latency sensitive applications; latency-critical applications; user plane applications; networking applications; etc.). The virtual edge instances may also be spanned across systems of multiple owners at different geographic locations (or, respective computing systems and resources which are co-owned or co-managed by multiple owners). 
     For instance, each edge node  422 ,  424  may implement the use of containers, such as with the use of a container “pod”  426 ,  428  providing a group of one or more containers. In a setting that uses one or more container pods, a pod controller or orchestrator is responsible for local control and orchestration of the containers in the pod. Various edge node resources (e.g., storage, compute, services, depicted with hexagons) provided for the respective edge slices  432 ,  434  are partitioned according to the needs of each container. 
     With the use of container pods, a pod controller oversees the partitioning and allocation of containers and resources. The pod controller receives instructions from an orchestrator (e.g., orchestrator  460 ) that instructs the controller on how best to partition physical resources and for what duration, such as by receiving key performance indicator (KPI) targets based on SLA contracts. The pod controller determines which container requires which resources and for how long in order to complete the workload and satisfy the SLA. The pod controller also manages container lifecycle operations such as: creating the container, provisioning it with resources and applications, coordinating intermediate results between multiple containers working on a distributed application together, dismantling containers when workload completes, and the like. Additionally, a pod controller may serve a security role that prevents assignment of resources until the right tenant authenticates or prevents provisioning of data or a workload to a container until an attestation result is satisfied. 
     Also, with the use of container pods, tenant boundaries can still exist but in the context of each pod of containers. If each tenant specific pod has a tenant specific pod controller, there will be a shared pod controller that consolidates resource allocation requests to avoid typical resource starvation situations. Further controls may be provided to ensure attestation and trustworthiness of the pod and pod controller. For instance, the orchestrator  460  may provision an attestation verification policy to local pod controllers that perform attestation verification. If an attestation satisfies a policy for a first tenant pod controller but not a second tenant pod controller, then the second pod could be migrated to a different edge node that does satisfy it. Alternatively, the first pod may be allowed to execute and a different shared pod controller is installed and invoked prior to the second pod executing. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates additional compute arrangements deploying containers in an edge computing system. As a simplified example, system arrangements  510 ,  520  depict settings in which a pod controller (e.g., container managers  511 ,  521 , and container orchestrator  531 ) is adapted to launch containerized pods, functions, and functions-as-a-service instances through execution via compute nodes ( 515  in arrangement  510 ), or to separately execute containerized virtualized network functions through execution via compute nodes ( 523  in arrangement  520 ). This arrangement is adapted for use of multiple tenants in system arrangement  530  (using compute nodes  537 ), where containerized pods (e.g., pods  512 ), functions (e.g., functions  513 , VNFs  522 ,  536 ), and functions-as-a-service instances (e.g., FaaS instance  514 ) are launched within virtual machines (e.g., VMs  534 ,  535  for tenants  532 ,  533 ) specific to respective tenants (aside the execution of virtualized network functions). This arrangement is further adapted for use in system arrangement  540 , which provides containers  542 ,  543 , or execution of the various functions, applications, and functions on compute nodes  544 , as coordinated by an container-based orchestration system  541 . 
     The system arrangements of depicted in  FIG. 5  provides an architecture that treats VMs, Containers, and Functions equally in terms of application composition (and resulting applications are combinations of these three ingredients). Each ingredient may involve use of one or more accelerator (FPGA, ASIC) components as a local backend. In this manner, applications can be split across multiple edge owners, coordinated by an orchestrator. 
     In the context of  FIG. 5 , the pod controller/container manager, container orchestrator, and individual nodes may provide a security enforcement point. However, tenant isolation may be orchestrated where the resources allocated to a tenant are distinct from resources allocated to a second tenant, but edge owners cooperate to ensure resource allocations are not shared across tenant boundaries. Or, resource allocations could be isolated across tenant boundaries, as tenants could allow “use” via a subscription or transaction/contract basis. In these contexts, virtualization, containerization, enclaves and hardware partitioning schemes may be used by edge owners to enforce tenancy. Other isolation environments may include: bare metal (dedicated) equipment, virtual machines, containers, virtual machines on containers, or combinations thereof. 
     In further examples, aspects of software-defined or controlled silicon hardware, and other configurable hardware, may integrate with the applications, functions, and services an edge computing system. Software defined silicon may be used to ensure the ability for some resource or hardware ingredient to fulfill a contract or service level agreement, based on the ingredient&#39;s ability to remediate a portion of itself or the workload (e.g., by an upgrade, reconfiguration, or provision of new features within the hardware configuration itself). 
     It should be appreciated that the edge computing systems and arrangements discussed herein may be applicable in various solutions, services, and/or use cases involving mobility. As an example,  FIG. 6  shows a simplified vehicle compute and communication use case involving mobile access to applications in an edge computing system  600  that implements an edge cloud  110 . In this use case, respective client compute nodes  610  may be embodied as in-vehicle compute systems (e.g., in-vehicle navigation and/or infotainment systems) located in corresponding vehicles which communicate with the edge gateway nodes  620  during traversal of a roadway. For instance, the edge gateway nodes  620  may be located in a roadside cabinet or other enclosure built-into a structure having other, separate, mechanical utility, which may be placed along the roadway, at intersections of the roadway, or other locations near the roadway. As respective vehicles traverse along the roadway, the connection between its client compute node  610  and a particular edge gateway device  620  may propagate so as to maintain a consistent connection and context for the client compute node  610 . Likewise, mobile edge nodes may aggregate at the high priority services or according to the throughput or latency resolution requirements for the underlying service(s) (e.g., in the case of drones). The respective edge gateway devices  620  include an amount of processing and storage capabilities and, as such, some processing and/or storage of data for the client compute nodes  610  may be performed on one or more of the edge gateway devices  620 . 
     The edge gateway devices  620  may communicate with one or more edge resource nodes  640 , which are illustratively embodied as compute servers, appliances or components located at or in a communication base station  642  (e.g., a based station of a cellular network). As discussed above, the respective edge resource nodes  640  include an amount of processing and storage capabilities and, as such, some processing and/or storage of data for the client compute nodes  610  may be performed on the edge resource node  640 . For example, the processing of data that is less urgent or important may be performed by the edge resource node  640 , while the processing of data that is of a higher urgency or importance may be performed by the edge gateway devices  620  (depending on, for example, the capabilities of each component, or information in the request indicating urgency or importance). Based on data access, data location or latency, work may continue on edge resource nodes when the processing priorities change during the processing activity. Likewise, configurable systems or hardware resources themselves can be activated (e.g., through a local orchestrator) to provide additional resources to meet the new demand (e.g., adapt the compute resources to the workload data). 
     The edge resource node(s)  640  also communicate with the core data center  650 , which may include compute servers, appliances, and/or other components located in a central location (e.g., a central office of a cellular communication network). The core data center  650  may provide a gateway to the global network cloud  660  (e.g., the Internet) for the edge cloud  110  operations formed by the edge resource node(s)  640  and the edge gateway devices  620 . Additionally, in some examples, the core data center  650  may include an amount of processing and storage capabilities and, as such, some processing and/or storage of data for the client compute devices may be performed on the core data center  650  (e.g., processing of low urgency or importance, or high complexity). 
     The edge gateway nodes  620  or the edge resource nodes  640  may offer the use of stateful applications  632  and a geographic distributed database  634 . Although the applications  632  and database  634  are illustrated as being horizontally distributed at a layer of the edge cloud  110 , it will be understood that resources, services, or other components of the application may be vertically distributed throughout the edge cloud (including, part of the application executed at the client compute node  610 , other parts at the edge gateway nodes  620  or the edge resource nodes  640 , etc.). Additionally, as stated previously, there can be peer relationships at any level to meet service objectives and obligations. Further, the data for a specific client or application can move from edge to edge based on changing conditions (e.g., based on acceleration resource availability, following the car movement, etc.). For instance, based on the “rate of decay” of access, prediction can be made to identify the next owner to continue, or when the data or computational access will no longer be viable. These and other services may be utilized to complete the work that is needed to keep the transaction compliant and lossless. 
     In further scenarios, a container  636  (or pod of containers) may be flexibly migrated from an edge node  620  to other edge nodes (e.g.,  620 ,  640 , etc.) such that the container with an application and workload does not need to be reconstituted, re-compiled, re-interpreted in order for migration to work. However, in such settings, there may be some remedial or “swizzling” translation operations applied. For example, the physical hardware at node  640  may differ from edge gateway node  620  and therefore, the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) that makes up the bottom edge of the container will be re-mapped to the physical layer of the target edge node. This may involve some form of late-binding technique, such as binary translation of the HAL from the container native format to the physical hardware format, or may involve mapping interfaces and operations. A pod controller may be used to drive the interface mapping as part of the container lifecycle, which includes migration to/from different hardware environments. 
     The scenarios encompassed by  FIG. 6  may utilize various types of mobile edge nodes, such as an edge node hosted in a vehicle (car/truck/tram/train) or other mobile unit, as the edge node will move to other geographic locations along the platform hosting it. With vehicle-to-vehicle communications, individual vehicles may even act as network edge nodes for other cars, (e.g., to perform caching, reporting, data aggregation, etc.). Thus, it will be understood that the application components provided in various edge nodes may be distributed in static or mobile settings, including coordination between some functions or operations at individual endpoint devices or the edge gateway nodes  620 , some others at the edge resource node  640 , and others in the core data center  650  or global network cloud  660 . 
     In further configurations, the edge computing system may implement FaaS computing capabilities through the use of respective executable applications and functions. In an example, a developer writes function code (e.g., “computer code” herein) representing one or more computer functions, and the function code is uploaded to a FaaS platform provided by, for example, an edge node or data center. A trigger such as, for example, a service use case or an edge processing event, initiates the execution of the function code with the FaaS platform. 
     In an example of FaaS, a container is used to provide an environment in which function code (e.g., an application which may be provided by a third party) is executed. The container may be any isolated-execution entity such as a process, a Docker or Kubernetes container, a virtual machine, etc. Within the edge computing system, various datacenter, edge, and endpoint (including mobile) devices are used to “spin up” functions (e.g., activate and/or allocate function actions) that are scaled on demand. The function code gets executed on the physical infrastructure (e.g., edge computing node) device and underlying virtualized containers. Finally, container is “spun down” (e.g., deactivated and/or deallocated) on the infrastructure in response to the execution being completed. 
     Further aspects of FaaS may enable deployment of edge functions in a service fashion, including a support of respective functions that support edge computing as a service (Edge-as-a-Service or “EaaS”). Additional features of FaaS may include: a granular billing component that enables customers (e.g., computer code developers) to pay only when their code gets executed; common data storage to store data for reuse by one or more functions; orchestration and management among individual functions; function execution management, parallelism, and consolidation; management of container and function memory spaces; coordination of acceleration resources available for functions; and distribution of functions between containers (including “warm” containers, already deployed or operating, versus “cold” which require initialization, deployment, or configuration). 
     The edge computing system  600  can include or be in communication with an edge provisioning node  644 . The edge provisioning node  644  can distribute software such as the example computer readable instructions  782  of  FIG. 7B , to various receiving parties for implementing any of the methods described herein. The example edge provisioning node  644  may be implemented by any computer server, home server, content delivery network, virtual server, software distribution system, central facility, storage device, storage node, data facility, cloud service, etc., capable of storing and/or transmitting software instructions (e.g., code, scripts, executable binaries, containers, packages, compressed files, and/or derivatives thereof) to other computing devices. Component(s) of the example edge provisioning node  644  may be located in a cloud, in a local area network, in an edge network, in a wide area network, on the Internet, and/or any other location communicatively coupled with the receiving party(ies). The receiving parties may be customers, clients, associates, users, etc. of the entity owning and/or operating the edge provisioning node  644 . For example, the entity that owns and/or operates the edge provisioning node  644  may be a developer, a seller, and/or a licensor (or a customer and/or consumer thereof) of software instructions such as the example computer readable instructions  782  of  FIG. 7B . The receiving parties may be consumers, service providers, users, retailers, OEMs, etc., who purchase and/or license the software instructions for use and/or re-sale and/or sub-licensing. 
     In an example, edge provisioning node  644  includes one or more servers and one or more storage devices. The storage devices host computer readable instructions such as the example computer readable instructions  782  of  FIG. 7B , as described below. Similarly to edge gateway devices  620  described above, the one or more servers of the edge provisioning node  644  are in communication with a base station  642  or other network communication entity. In some examples, the one or more servers are responsive to requests to transmit the software instructions to a requesting party as part of a commercial transaction. Payment for the delivery, sale, and/or license of the software instructions may be handled by the one or more servers of the software distribution platform and/or via a third party payment entity. The servers enable purchasers and/or licensors to download the computer readable instructions  782  from the edge provisioning node  644 . For example, the software instructions, which may correspond to the example computer readable instructions  782  of  FIG. 7B , may be downloaded to the example processor platform/s, which is to execute the computer readable instructions  782  to implement the methods described herein. 
     In some examples, the processor platform(s) that execute the computer readable instructions  782  can be physically located in different geographic locations, legal jurisdictions, etc. In some examples, one or more servers of the edge provisioning node  644  periodically offer, transmit, and/or force updates to the software instructions (e.g., the example computer readable instructions  782  of  FIG. 7B ) to ensure improvements, patches, updates, etc. are distributed and applied to the software instructions implemented at the end user devices. In some examples, different components of the computer readable instructions  782  can be distributed from different sources and/or to different processor platforms; for example, different libraries, plug-ins, components, and other types of compute modules, whether compiled or interpreted, can be distributed from different sources and/or to different processor platforms. For example, a portion of the software instructions (e.g., a script that is not, in itself, executable) may be distributed from a first source while an interpreter (capable of executing the script) may be distributed from a second source. 
     In further examples, any of the compute nodes or devices discussed with reference to the present edge computing systems and environment may be fulfilled based on the components depicted in  FIGS. 7A and 7B . Respective edge compute nodes may be embodied as a type of device, appliance, computer, or other “thing” capable of communicating with other edge, networking, or endpoint components. For example, an edge compute device may be embodied as a personal computer, server, smartphone, a mobile compute device, a smart appliance, an in-vehicle compute system (e.g., a navigation system), a self-contained device having an outer case, shell, etc., or other device or system capable of performing the described functions. 
     In the simplified example depicted in  FIG. 7A , an edge compute node  700  includes a compute engine (also referred to herein as “compute circuitry”)  702 , an input/output (I/O) subsystem  708 , data storage  710 , a communication circuitry subsystem  712 , and, optionally, one or more peripheral devices  714 . In other examples, respective compute devices may include other or additional components, such as those typically found in a computer (e.g., a display, peripheral devices, etc.). Additionally, in some examples, one or more of the illustrative components may be incorporated in, or otherwise form a portion of, another component. 
     The compute node  700  may be embodied as any type of engine, device, or collection of devices capable of performing various compute functions. In some examples, the compute node  700  may be embodied as a single device such as an integrated circuit, an embedded system, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a system-on-a-chip (SOC), or other integrated system or device. In the illustrative example, the compute node  700  includes or is embodied as a processor  704  and a memory  706 . The processor  704  may be embodied as any type of processor capable of performing the functions described herein (e.g., executing an application). For example, the processor  704  may be embodied as a multi-core processor(s), a microcontroller, a processing unit, a specialized or special purpose processing unit, or other processor or processing/controlling circuit. 
     In some examples, the processor  704  may be embodied as, include, or be coupled to an FPGA, an IPU, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), reconfigurable hardware or hardware circuitry, or other specialized hardware to facilitate performance of the functions described herein. Also in some examples, the processor  704  may be embodied as a specialized x-processing unit (xPU) also known as a data processing unit (DPU), infrastructure processing unit (IPU), or network processing unit (NPU). Such an xPU may be embodied as a standalone circuit or circuit package, integrated within an SOC, or integrated with networking circuitry (e.g., in a SmartNIC, or enhanced SmartNIC), acceleration circuitry, storage devices, or AI hardware (e.g., GPUs or programmed FPGAs). Such an xPU may be designed to receive programming to process one or more data streams and perform specific tasks and actions for the data streams (such as hosting microservices, performing service management or orchestration, organizing or managing server or data center hardware, managing service meshes, or collecting and distributing telemetry), outside of the CPU or general purpose processing hardware. However, it will be understood that a xPU, a SOC, a CPU, and other variations of the processor  704  may work in coordination with each other to execute many types of operations and instructions within and on behalf of the compute node  700 . 
     The memory  706  may be embodied as any type of volatile (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM), etc.) or non-volatile memory or data storage capable of performing the functions described herein. Volatile memory may be a storage medium that requires power to maintain the state of data stored by the medium. Non-limiting examples of volatile memory may include various types of random access memory (RAM), such as DRAM or static random access memory (SRAM). One particular type of DRAM that may be used in a memory module is synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM). 
     In an example, the memory device is a block addressable memory device, such as those based on NAND or NOR technologies. A memory device may also include a three dimensional crosspoint memory device (e.g., Intel® 3D XPoint™ memory), or other byte addressable write-in-place nonvolatile memory devices. The memory device may refer to the die itself and/or to a packaged memory product. In some examples, 3D crosspoint memory (e.g., Intel® 3D XPoint™ memory) may comprise a transistor-less stackable cross point architecture in which memory cells sit at the intersection of word lines and bit lines and are individually addressable and in which bit storage is based on a change in bulk resistance. In some examples, all or a portion of the memory  706  may be integrated into the processor  704 . The memory  706  may store various software and data used during operation such as one or more applications, data operated on by the application(s), libraries, and drivers. 
     The compute circuitry  702  is communicatively coupled to other components of the compute node  700  via the I/O subsystem  708 , which may be embodied as circuitry and/or components to facilitate input/output operations with the compute circuitry  702  (e.g., with the processor  704  and/or the main memory  706 ) and other components of the compute circuitry  702 . For example, the I/O subsystem  708  may be embodied as, or otherwise include, memory controller hubs, input/output control hubs, integrated sensor hubs, firmware devices, communication links (e.g., point-to-point links, bus links, wires, cables, light guides, printed circuit board traces, etc.), and/or other components and subsystems to facilitate the input/output operations. In some examples, the I/O subsystem  708  may form a portion of a system-on-a-chip (SoC) and be incorporated, along with one or more of the processor  704 , the memory  706 , and other components of the compute circuitry  702 , into the compute circuitry  702 . 
     The one or more illustrative data storage devices  710  may be embodied as any type of devices configured for short-term or long-term storage of data such as, for example, memory devices and circuits, memory cards, hard disk drives, solid-state drives, or other data storage devices. Individual data storage devices  710  may include a system partition that stores data and firmware code for the data storage device  710 . Individual data storage devices  710  may also include one or more operating system partitions that store data files and executables for operating systems depending on, for example, the type of compute node  700 . 
     The communication circuitry  712  may be embodied as any communication circuit, device, or collection thereof, capable of enabling communications over a network between the compute circuitry  702  and another compute device (e.g., an edge gateway of an implementing edge computing system). The communication circuitry  712  may be configured to use any one or more communication technology (e.g., wired or wireless communications) and associated protocols (e.g., a cellular networking protocol such a 3GPP 4G or 5G standard, a wireless local area network protocol such as IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi®, a wireless wide area network protocol, Ethernet, Bluetooth®, Bluetooth Low Energy, a IoT protocol such as IEEE 802.15.4 or ZigBee®, low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) or low-power wide-area (LPWA) protocols, etc.) to effect such communication. 
     The illustrative communication circuitry  712  includes a network interface controller (NIC)  720 , which may also be referred to as a host fabric interface (HFI). The NIC  720  may be embodied as one or more add-in-boards, daughter cards, network interface cards, controller chips, chipsets, or other devices that may be used by the compute node  700  to connect with another compute device (e.g., an edge gateway node). In some examples, the NIC  720  may be embodied as part of a system-on-a-chip (SoC) that includes one or more processors, or included on a multichip package that also contains one or more processors. In some examples, the NIC  720  may include a local processor (not shown) and/or a local memory (not shown) that are both local to the NIC  720 . In such examples, the local processor of the NIC  720  may be capable of performing one or more of the functions of the compute circuitry  702  described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, in such examples, the local memory of the NIC  720  may be integrated into one or more components of the client compute node at the board level, socket level, chip level, and/or other levels. 
     Additionally, in some examples, a respective compute node  700  may include one or more peripheral devices  714 . Such peripheral devices  714  may include any type of peripheral device found in a compute device or server such as audio input devices, a display, other input/output devices, interface devices, and/or other peripheral devices, depending on the particular type of the compute node  700 . In further examples, the compute node  700  may be embodied by a respective edge compute node (whether a client, gateway, or aggregation node) in an edge computing system or like forms of appliances, computers, subsystems, circuitry, or other components. 
     In a more detailed example,  FIG. 7B  illustrates a block diagram of an example of components that may be present in an edge computing node  750  for implementing the techniques (e.g., operations, processes, methods, and methodologies) described herein. This edge computing node  750  provides a closer view of the respective components of node  700  when implemented as or as part of a computing device (e.g., as a mobile device, a base station, server, gateway, etc.). The edge computing node  750  may include any combinations of the hardware or logical components referenced herein, and it may include or couple with any device usable with an edge communication network or a combination of such networks. The components may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, instruction sets, programmable logic or algorithms, hardware, hardware accelerators, software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the edge computing node  750 , or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of a larger system. 
     The edge computing device  750  may include processing circuitry in the form of a processor  752 , which may be a microprocessor, a multi-core processor, a multithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, an xPU/DPU/IPU/NPU, special purpose processing unit, specialized processing unit, or other known processing elements. The processor  752  may be a part of a system on a chip (SoC) in which the processor  752  and other components are formed into a single integrated circuit, or a single package, such as the Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC boards from Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. As an example, the processor  752  may include an Intel® Architecture Core™ based CPU processor, such as a Quark™, an Atom™, an i3, an i5, an i7, an i9, or an MCU-class processor, or another such processor available from Intel®. However, any number other processors may be used, such as available from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD®) of Sunnyvale, Calif., a MIPS®-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., an ARM®-based design licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd. or a customer thereof, or their licensees or adopters. The processors may include units such as an A5-A13 processor from Apple® Inc., a Snapdragon™ processor from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., or an OMAP™ processor from Texas Instruments, Inc. The processor  752  and accompanying circuitry may be provided in a single socket form factor, multiple socket form factor, or a variety of other formats, including in limited hardware configurations or configurations that include fewer than all elements shown in  FIG. 7B . 
     The processor  752  may communicate with a system memory  754  over an interconnect  756  (e.g., a bus). Any number of memory devices may be used to provide for a given amount of system memory. As examples, the memory  754  may be random access memory (RAM) in accordance with a Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) design such as the DDR or mobile DDR standards (e.g., LPDDR, LPDDR2, LPDDR3, or LPDDR4). In particular examples, a memory component may comply with a DRAM standard promulgated by JEDEC, such as JESD79F for DDR SDRAM, JESD79-2F for DDR2 SDRAM, JESD79-3F for DDR3 SDRAM, JESD79-4A for DDR4 SDRAM, JESD209 for Low Power DDR (LPDDR), JESD209-2 for LPDDR2, JESD209-3 for LPDDR3, and JESD209-4 for LPDDR4. Such standards (and similar standards) may be referred to as DDR-based standards and communication interfaces of the storage devices that implement such standards may be referred to as DDR-based interfaces. In various implementations, the individual memory devices may be of any number of different package types such as single die package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package (Q17P), etc. These devices, in some examples, may be directly soldered onto a motherboard to provide a lower profile solution, while in other examples the devices are configured as one or more memory modules that in turn couple to the motherboard by a given connector. Any number of other memory implementations may be used, such as other types of memory modules, e.g., dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) of different varieties including but not limited to microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs. 
     To provide for persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems and so forth, a storage  758  may also couple to the processor  752  via the interconnect  756 . In an example, the storage  758  may be implemented via a solid-state disk drive (SSDD). Other devices that may be used for the storage  758  include flash memory cards, such as Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSD cards, eXtreme Digital (XD) picture cards, and the like, and Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drives. In an example, the memory device may be or may include memory devices that use chalcogenide glass, multi-threshold level NAND flash memory, NOR flash memory, single or multi-level Phase Change Memory (PCM), a resistive memory, nanowire memory, ferroelectric transistor random access memory (FeTRAM), anti-ferroelectric memory, magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) memory that incorporates memristor technology, resistive memory including the metal oxide base, the oxygen vacancy base and the conductive bridge Random Access Memory (CB-RAM), or spin transfer torque (STT)-MRAM, a spintronic magnetic junction memory based device, a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) based device, a DW (Domain Wall) and SOT (Spin Orbit Transfer) based device, a thyristor based memory device, or a combination of any of the above, or other memory. 
     In low power implementations, the storage  758  may be on-die memory or registers associated with the processor  752 . However, in some examples, the storage  758  may be implemented using a micro hard disk drive (HDD). Further, any number of new technologies may be used for the storage  758  in addition to, or instead of, the technologies described, such resistance change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, among others. 
     The components may communicate over the interconnect  756 . The interconnect  756  may include any number of technologies, including industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The interconnect  756  may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in an SoC based system. Other bus systems may be included, such as an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) interface, a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) interface, point to point interfaces, and a power bus, among others. 
     The interconnect  756  may couple the processor  752  to a transceiver  766 , for communications with the connected edge devices  762 . The transceiver  766  may use any number of frequencies and protocols, such as 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) transmissions under the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, using the Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) standard, as defined by the Bluetooth® Special Interest Group, or the ZigBee® standard, among others. Any number of radios, configured for a particular wireless communication protocol, may be used for the connections to the connected edge devices  762 . For example, a wireless local area network (WLAN) unit may be used to implement Wi-Fi® communications in accordance with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard. In addition, wireless wide area communications, e.g., according to a cellular or other wireless wide area protocol, may occur via a wireless wide area network (WWAN) unit. 
     The wireless network transceiver  766  (or multiple transceivers) may communicate using multiple standards or radios for communications at a different range. For example, the edge computing node  750  may communicate with close devices, e.g., within about 10 meters, using a local transceiver based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or another low power radio, to save power. More distant connected edge devices  762 , e.g., within about 50 meters, may be reached over ZigBee® or other intermediate power radios. Both communications techniques may take place over a single radio at different power levels or may take place over separate transceivers, for example, a local transceiver using BLE and a separate mesh transceiver using ZigBee®. 
     A wireless network transceiver  766  (e.g., a radio transceiver) may be included to communicate with devices or services in the edge cloud  795  via local or wide area network protocols. The wireless network transceiver  766  may be a low-power wide-area (LPWA) transceiver that follows the IEEE 802.15.4, or IEEE 802.15.4g standards, among others. The edge computing node  750  may communicate over a wide area using LoRaWAN™ (Long Range Wide Area Network) developed by Semtech and the LoRa Alliance. The techniques described herein are not limited to these technologies but may be used with any number of other cloud transceivers that implement long range, low bandwidth communications, such as Sigfox, and other technologies. Further, other communications techniques, such as time-slotted channel hopping, described in the IEEE 802.15.4e specification may be used. 
     Any number of other radio communications and protocols may be used in addition to the systems mentioned for the wireless network transceiver  766 , as described herein. For example, the transceiver  766  may include a cellular transceiver that uses spread spectrum (SPA/SAS) communications for implementing high-speed communications. Further, any number of other protocols may be used, such as Wi-Fi® networks for medium speed communications and provision of network communications. The transceiver  766  may include radios that are compatible with any number of 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) specifications, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 5th Generation (5G) communication systems, discussed in further detail at the end of the present disclosure. A network interface controller (NIC)  768  may be included to provide a wired communication to nodes of the edge cloud  795  or to other devices, such as the connected edge devices  762  (e.g., operating in a mesh). The wired communication may provide an Ethernet connection or may be based on other types of networks, such as Controller Area Network (CAN), Local Interconnect Network (LIN), DeviceNet, ControlNet, Data Highway+, PROFIBUS, or PROFINET, among many others. An additional NIC  768  may be included to enable connecting to a second network, for example, a first NIC  768  providing communications to the cloud over Ethernet, and a second NIC  768  providing communications to other devices over another type of network. 
     Given the variety of types of applicable communications from the device to another component or network, applicable communications circuitry used by the device may include or be embodied by any one or more of components  764 ,  766 ,  768 , or  770 . Accordingly, in various examples, applicable means for communicating (e.g., receiving, transmitting, etc.) may be embodied by such communications circuitry. 
     The edge computing node  750  may include or be coupled to acceleration circuitry  764 , which may be embodied by one or more artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators, a neural compute stick, neuromorphic hardware, an FPGA, an arrangement of GPUs, an arrangement of xPUs/DPUs/IPU/NPUs, one or more SoCs, one or more CPUs, one or more digital signal processors, dedicated ASICs, or other forms of specialized processors or circuitry designed to accomplish one or more specialized tasks. These tasks may include AI processing (including machine learning, training, inferencing, and classification operations), visual data processing, network data processing, object detection, rule analysis, or the like. These tasks also may include the specific edge computing tasks for service management and service operations discussed elsewhere in this document. 
     The interconnect  756  may couple the processor  752  to a sensor hub or external interface  770  that is used to connect additional devices or subsystems. The devices may include sensors  772 , such as accelerometers, level sensors, flow sensors, optical light sensors, camera sensors, temperature sensors, global navigation system (e.g., GPS) sensors, pressure sensors, barometric pressure sensors, and the like. The hub or interface  770  further may be used to connect the edge computing node  750  to actuators  774 , such as power switches, valve actuators, an audible sound generator, a visual warning device, and the like. 
     In some optional examples, various input/output (I/O) devices may be present within or connected to, the edge computing node  750 . For example, a display or other output device  784  may be included to show information, such as sensor readings or actuator position. An input device  786 , such as a touch screen or keypad may be included to accept input. An output device  784  may include any number of forms of audio or visual display, including simple visual outputs such as binary status indicators (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display screens (e.g., liquid crystal display (LCD) screens), with the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, and the like being generated or produced from the operation of the edge computing node  750 . A display or console hardware, in the context of the present system, may be used to provide output and receive input of an edge computing system; to manage components or services of an edge computing system; identify a state of an edge computing component or service; or to conduct any other number of management or administration functions or service use cases. 
     A battery  776  may power the edge computing node  750 , although, in examples in which the edge computing node  750  is mounted in a fixed location, it may have a power supply coupled to an electrical grid, or the battery may be used as a backup or for temporary capabilities. The battery  776  may be a lithium ion battery, or a metal-air battery, such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, and the like. 
     A battery monitor/charger  778  may be included in the edge computing node  750  to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery  776 , if included. The battery monitor/charger  778  may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery  776  to provide failure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery  776 . The battery monitor/charger  778  may include a battery monitoring integrated circuit, such as an LTC4020 or an LTC2990 from Linear Technologies, an ADT7488A from ON Semiconductor of Phoenix Ariz., or an IC from the UCD90xxx family from Texas Instruments of Dallas, Tex. The battery monitor/charger  778  may communicate the information on the battery  776  to the processor  752  over the interconnect  756 . The battery monitor/charger  778  may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that enables the processor  752  to directly monitor the voltage of the battery  776  or the current flow from the battery  776 . The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the edge computing node  750  may perform, such as transmission frequency, mesh network operation, sensing frequency, and the like. 
     A power block  780 , or other power supply coupled to a grid, may be coupled with the battery monitor/charger  778  to charge the battery  776 . In some examples, the power block  780  may be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain the power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the edge computing node  750 . A wireless battery charging circuit, such as an LTC4020 chip from Linear Technologies of Milpitas, Calif., among others, may be included in the battery monitor/charger  778 . The specific charging circuits may be selected based on the size of the battery  776 , and thus, the current required. The charging may be performed using the Airfuel standard promulgated by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard promulgated by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard, promulgated by the Alliance for Wireless Power, among others. 
     The storage  758  may include instructions  782  in the form of software, firmware, or hardware commands to implement the techniques described herein. Although such instructions  782  are shown as code blocks included in the memory  754  and the storage  758 , it may be understood that any of the code blocks may be replaced with hardwired circuits, for example, built into an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). 
     In an example, the instructions  782  provided via the memory  754 , the storage  758 , or the processor  752  may be embodied as a non-transitory, machine-readable medium  760  including code to direct the processor  752  to perform electronic operations in the edge computing node  750 . The processor  752  may access the non-transitory, machine-readable medium  760  over the interconnect  756 . For instance, the non-transitory, machine-readable medium  760  may be embodied by devices described for the storage  758  or may include specific storage units such as optical disks, flash drives, or any number of other hardware devices. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium  760  may include instructions to direct the processor  752  to perform a specific sequence or flow of actions, for example, as described with respect to the flowchart(s) and block diagram(s) of operations and functionality depicted above. As used herein, the terms “machine-readable medium” and “computer-readable medium” are interchangeable. 
     Also in a specific example, the instructions  782  on the processor  752  (separately, or in combination with the instructions  782  of the machine readable medium  760 ) may configure execution or operation of a trusted execution environment (TEE)  790 . In an example, the TEE  790  operates as a protected area accessible to the processor  752  for secure execution of instructions and secure access to data. Various implementations of the TEE  790 , and an accompanying secure area in the processor  752  or the memory  754  may be provided, for instance, through use of Intel® Software Guard Extensions (SGX) or ARM® TrustZone® hardware security extensions, Intel® Management Engine (ME), or Intel® Converged Security Manageability Engine (CSME). Other aspects of security hardening, hardware roots-of-trust, and trusted or protected operations may be implemented in the device  750  through the TEE  790  and the processor  752 . 
     In further examples, a machine-readable medium also includes any tangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying instructions for execution by a machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present disclosure or that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures utilized by or associated with such instructions. A “machine-readable medium” thus may include but is not limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine-readable media include non-volatile memory, including but not limited to, by way of example, semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The instructions embodied by a machine-readable medium may further be transmitted or received over a communications network using a transmission medium via a network interface device utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols (e.g., Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)). 
     A machine-readable medium may be provided by a storage device or other apparatus which is capable of hosting data in a non-transitory format. In an example, information stored or otherwise provided on a machine-readable medium may be representative of instructions, such as instructions themselves or a format from which the instructions may be derived. This format from which the instructions may be derived may include source code, encoded instructions (e.g., in compressed or encrypted form), packaged instructions (e.g., split into multiple packages), or the like. The information representative of the instructions in the machine-readable medium may be processed by processing circuitry into the instructions to implement any of the operations discussed herein. For example, deriving the instructions from the information (e.g., processing by the processing circuitry) may include: compiling (e.g., from source code, object code, etc.), interpreting, loading, organizing (e.g., dynamically or statically linking), encoding, decoding, encrypting, unencrypting, packaging, unpackaging, or otherwise manipulating the information into the instructions. 
     In an example, the derivation of the instructions may include assembly, compilation, or interpretation of the information (e.g., by the processing circuitry) to create the instructions from some intermediate or preprocessed format provided by the machine-readable medium. The information, when provided in multiple parts, may be combined, unpacked, and modified to create the instructions. For example, the information may be in multiple compressed source code packages (or object code, or binary executable code, etc.) on one or several remote servers. The source code packages may be encrypted when in transit over a network and decrypted, uncompressed, assembled (e.g., linked) if necessary, and compiled or interpreted (e.g., into a library, stand-alone executable, etc.) at a local machine, and executed by the local machine. 
       FIG. 7C  illustrates an example software distribution platform  735  to distribute software, such as the example computer readable instructions  782  of  FIG. 7B , to one or more devices, such as example processor platform(s)  735  and/or example connected Edge devices  310  of  FIG. 3 . The example software distribution platform  735  may be implemented by any computer server, data facility, cloud service, etc., capable of storing and transmitting software to other computing devices (e.g., third parties, the example connected Edge devices  310  of  FIG. 3 ). Example connected Edge devices may be customers, clients, managing devices (e.g., servers), third parties (e.g., customers of an entity owning and/or operating the software distribution platform  735 ). Example connected Edge devices may operate in commercial and/or home automation environments. In some examples, a third party is a developer, a seller, and/or a licensor of software such as the example computer readable instructions  782  of  FIG. 7B . The third parties may be consumers, users, retailers, OEMs, etc., that purchase and/or license the software for use and/or re-sale and/or sub-licensing. In some examples, distributed software causes display of one or more user interfaces (UIs) and/or graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to identify the one or more devices (e.g., connected Edge devices) geographically and/or logically separated from each other (e.g., physically separated IoT devices chartered with the responsibility of water distribution control (e.g., pumps), electricity distribution control (e.g., relays), etc.). 
     In the illustrated example of  FIG. 7C , the software distribution platform  735  includes one or more servers and one or more storage devices. The storage devices store the computer readable instructions  782 , which may correspond to the example computer readable instructions, as described above. The one or more servers of the example software distribution platform  735  are in communication with a network  730 , which may correspond to any one or more of the Internet and/or any of the example networks described above. In some examples, the one or more servers are responsive to requests to transmit the software to a requesting party as part of a commercial transaction. Payment for the delivery, sale, and/or license of the software may be handled by the one or more servers of the software distribution platform and/or via a third-party payment entity. The servers enable purchasers and/or licensors to download the computer readable instructions  782  from the software distribution platform  735 . For example, the software, which may correspond to the example computer readable instructions, may be downloaded to the example processor platform(s)  735  (e.g., example connected Edge devices), which is/are to execute the computer readable instructions  782  to implement the heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning. In some examples, one or more servers of the software distribution platform  735  are communicatively connected to one or more security domains and/or security devices through which requests and transmissions of the example computer readable instructions  782  must pass. In some examples, one or more servers of the software distribution platform  735  periodically offer, transmit, and/or force updates to the software (e.g., the example computer readable instructions  782  of  FIG. 7B ) to ensure improvements, patches, updates, etc., are distributed and applied to the software at the end user devices. 
     In the illustrated example of  FIG. 7C , the computer readable instructions  782  are stored on storage devices of the software distribution platform  735  in a particular format. A format of computer readable instructions includes but is not limited to a particular code language (e.g., Java, JavaScript, Python, C, C#, SQL, HTML, etc.), and/or a particular code state (e.g., uncompiled code (e.g., ASCII), interpreted code, linked code, executable code (e.g., a binary), etc.). In some examples, the computer readable instructions  782  stored in the software distribution platform  735  are in a first format when transmitted to the example processor platform(s)  735 . In some examples, the first format is an executable binary in which particular types of the processor platform(s)  735  can execute. However, in some examples, the first format is uncompiled code that requires one or more preparation tasks to transform the first format to a second format to enable execution on the example processor platform(s)  735 . For instance, the receiving processor platform(s)  735  may need to compile the computer readable instructions  782  in the first format to generate executable code in a second format that is capable of being executed on the processor platform(s)  735 . In still other examples, the first format is interpreted code that, upon reaching the processor platform(s)  735 , is interpreted by an interpreter to facilitate execution of instructions. 
       FIG. 8  is a flow diagram of an example of a system  800  for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning, according to an embodiment. The system  800  may execute on the compute node  700  as described in  FIG. 7A , edge computing node  750  as described in  FIG. 7B , the edge nodes  422 ,  424  as described in  FIG. 4 , compute nodes  515 ,  523 ,  537 ,  544  as described in  FIG. 5 , etc. operating on the edge cloud  110  as described in  FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 6 . The system  800  may include a variety of components including an intermediate representation (IR) generator  815 , a compute analyzer  820 , a compute normalizer  840 , and a heterogeneous IR partitioner  835 . 
     An input AI model  805  may be converted into an in-memory graph representation and high-level optimizations are applied (e.g. at operation  810 ) using a variety of graph compilers (e.g., an AI model inference optimization and deployment engine, TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc.) during inference (e.g., processing data for input into a trained AI model). Input models may include a variety of machine learning models that may include layers, filters, nodes, and the like. Optimizing the model during inference may improve the compute efficiency of the model and may allow for more effective partitioning of the model for distribution amongst devices having different hardware specifications, resources, types, etc. This allows a complex model to be distributed amongst a heterogeneous set of compute resources increasing flexibility of distributing portions of the model workload. 
     Target independent optimizations such as horizontal or vertical node fusions, redundant node removal, training node removal, batchnorm folding, etc. are performed. For example, node fusion using TensorFlow Grappler may fuse convolution and rectified linear unit (ReLU) operators together to form a “_FusedConv2D” operator. An example of training node removal may use a model.eval( ) call in PyTorch before running inference to remove training nodes like “Dropout” from the graph. 
     The IR generator  815  receives the applied graph optimizations and converts the model to an intermediate representation (IR) using an offline step or an inline step. For example, an AI model inference optimization and deployment engine may be used to convert a TensorFlow model to IR or a PyTorch to open neural network exchange (ONNX) converter may be used to export a PyTorch model to an ONNX model offline. The TensorFlow model may also be converted to an AI model inference optimization and deployment engine intermediate representation using an inline method with a TensorFlow frontend module in the AI model inference optimization and deployment engine. The TensorFlow frontend module traverses the graph after high level optimizations are applied and converts each TensorFlow operator to AI model inference optimization and deployment engine operator. The nodes are topologically sorted and a directed acyclic graph with IR is produced by the IR generator  815 . 
     The compute analyzer  820  analyzes and estimates compute (e.g., computing demand of operational workloads, etc.) present in the model. The compute depends on the operators and attributes present in the model and depends on topology of the model. The compute analyzer  820  estimates and reports an operation count  825  and a sparsity factor  830 . 
     The operation count  825  is calculated as a representation of overall compute present in the model in terms of giga floating point operations (GFLOPS) or giga integer operations (GIOPS) by estimating compute of each operator. For example compute estimation for convolution may be computed using the algorithm Convolution op count=(C in *K x *K y *input w *input h *C out )/Stride where C in  is the number of input channels, (K x , K y ) is the kernel size, (input w , input h ) is the resolution of the image representing width and height, C out  is the number of output channels, and Stride is a step size that the filter uses to slide through the image. 
     The sparsity factor  830  in the model is defined as a fraction of zero weights present in the model. Models are sparsified using algorithms like regularization-based sparsity (RB) to identify some weights in the models and replace the weights with zero values to reduce the overall compute. 
     The compute normalizer  840  estimates and provides metrics including, by way of example and not limitation, precision factor, efficiency factor, and theoretical maximum compute. Given that edge devices and accelerators (e.g., input processing devices  895 ) have different hardware architectures and instruction sets, there may be differences in data types (e.g., precision, etc.), compute efficiency compared to theoretical maximum compute due to thermal/power constraints, etc. 
     A precision factor  845  may be calculated by the compute normalizer  840 . Accelerators like GPU and VPU convert and execute a model in 32-bit floating point (FP32) or 8-bit integer (INT8). Although the compute estimation is initially calculated by the compute analyzer  820  using a FP32 model, while executing the model, the compute may be lower because of the conversion to lower precision. For example, an FP32 model may be provided as an input to a VPU but internally all the inputs and model weights may be converted to 16-bit floating point (FP16) for execution. This reduces the overall compute that the device uses to execute. The precision factor  845  estimates how much compute reduction would be realized on average for a given hardware device. This may be obtained by experimenting with a wide range of models on the hardware device and comparing against FP32 model compute on a CPU. 
     The compute efficiency  850  factor is defined as the fraction of the maximum theoretical compute that can be achieved on a device under the given thermal limits. Typically, every device has a theoretical maximum compute bound. However, because edge devices may have thermal/power constraints, the frequency may be throttled to keep the power under certain thermal/power limits. For example, the maximum thermal design power (TDP) of a VPU may be three watts. If the power budget is only two watts, then the frequency of the compute units is adjusted accordingly. This reduces the overall compute efficiency. 
     The heterogeneous IR partitioner  835  takes input from the compute analyzer  820  and the compute normalizer  840  to identify optimal partitioning points of an AI model. If the overall compute (e.g., in FLOPs) present in the model is ‘f’ that needs to be partitioned across N input processing devices (e.g., device_1  880 , device_2  885 , and device_n  890 ), the flops ‘f n ’ of the partitioned model are determined that need to be executed on an n th  device using the formula f n =f*C n /Σ(C i ), i=1 to N where f n  is the FLOPs to be executed on the device, f is the total number of FLOPs of the model, C i  is the compute normalization factor of i th  device, and N is the number of devices used for partitioning. The compute normalization of the n th  device C n  is computed using the formula C n =(1/p n )*(1−s)*e n *T n  where C n  is the compute normalization factor of the device (e.g. calculated by the compute normalizer  840 ), p n  is the precision factor  845  of the device, s is the sparsity factor  830  of the model, e n  is the compute efficiency factor  850 , and T n  is the theoretical compute of the device (e.g., theoretical maximum compute bound of the device). 
     In an example, a sparse INT8 model may have an operation count  825  of 11.469 GFLOPS and a sparsity factor  830  of 0.31 and an input processing device may have a precision factor  845  of 3.5, a compute efficiency factor  850  of 0.79 and maximum theoretical compute of x FLOPS. The compute normalization factor may be calculated as (1/3.5)*(1−0.31)*0.79*x equals a compute normalization factor of 0.1557x. 
     Compute efficiency factor  850  and the sparsity factor  830  may be expressed as values ranging between zero and one. However, compute efficiency may not be zero because there is always a minimum non-zero frequency at which a certain input processing device may be operated. If the input processing device is turned on, then the frequency may be reduced to this minimum value which may consume a non-zero amount of power. Also the sparsity factor may not be 1, which would mean all the weights in an input model are zero. Compute efficiency  850  may be calculated using frequencies at which an input processing device operates to be within a certain thermal design power (TDP) envelope. For example, configurable TDP up base frequency (e.g., 2.4 gigahertz (GHz)) and TDP down base frequency (e.g., 1.9 GHz) along with wattage (e.g., 45 W and 35 W respectively) result in the compute efficiency  850  being equal to 0.79 (e.g., 1.9/2.4). The precision factor  845  may be calculated as a ratio of an original processing load vs a load for processing the model or a partition of the model at a precision level of the device. For example, an original processing load may be 250 GFLOPS to process model components at FP32 and 50 GFLOPS to process the component at INT8. The precision factor may be equal to 5 (e.g., 250/50). The sparsity factor  830  may be derived as a ratio of a number of zero weight values in the model or partition of the model vs the non-zero weight values. For example, there may be 25 zero weight values and 50 non-zero weight values and the sparsity factor  830  may be calculated as 0.5 (e.g., 25/50). 
     The partitioned IR output by the heterogenous IR partitioner  835  includes target dependent optimizations (e.g., based on hardware and its capabilities, etc.)  855 A,  855 B, and  855 N that are compiled and loaded (e.g., at operations  870 A,  870 B, and  870 N). The complied models (e.g.,  875 A,  875 B, and  875 N) are executed on the respective device (e.g., device_1  880 A, device_2  880 B, and device_n  880 N). 
     Distributing optimized partitions amongst devices based on capabilities allows the model to be executed to maximize computing efficiency and to reduce latency that may occur from resource bottlenecks and the like. Edge gateway node  620  or edge provisioning node  644  may perform the operations described in  FIG. 8  to distribute and coordinate models to nodes in the edge cloud  110 . 
       FIG. 9  illustrates an example of a process  900  for calculating compute for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning, according to an embodiment. The process  900  may provide features as described in  FIG. 8 . The process  900  may be performed by the compute node  700  as described in  FIG. 7A , edge computing node  750  as described in  FIG. 7B , the edge nodes  422 ,  424  as described in  FIG. 4 , compute nodes  515 ,  523 ,  537 ,  544  as described in  FIG. 5 , etc. operating on the edge cloud  110  as described in  FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 6 . 
     An intermediate representation (IR) (e.g., generated by the IR generator  815  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) of an input model may be obtained (e.g., by the compute analyzer  820  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) (e.g., at operation  905 ). Compute cycles present in the IR may be counted (e.g., as part of the operation count  825  as described in  FIG. 8 . etc.) as, by way of example and not limitation, a number of GPLOPS, GIOPS, etc. (e.g., at operation  910 ). Weights present in the IR may be identified (e.g., as part of the sparsity factor  830  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) as zero weight values  920  and non-zero weight values  925  (e.g., at operation  930 ). A sparsity factor (e.g., the sparsity factor  830  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) may be calculated using a count of the zero weight values  920  and a count of the non-zero weight values  930  (e.g., at operation  930 ). The compute cycle count and the sparsity factor may be output to a heterogeneous IR partitioner (e.g., the heterogenous IR partitioner  835  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) for use in generating model partitions for execution on one or more devices (e.g., at operation  935 ). 
       FIG. 10  illustrates an example of a process  1000  for calculating compute normalization for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning, according to an embodiment. The process  1000  may provide features as described in  FIGS. 8 and 9 . The process  1000  may be performed by the compute node  700  as described in  FIG. 7A , edge computing node  750  as described in  FIG. 7B , the edge nodes  422 ,  424  as described in  FIG. 4 , compute nodes  515 ,  523 ,  537 ,  544  as described in  FIG. 5 , etc. operating on the edge cloud  110  as described in  FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 6 . 
     Attributes of an input processing device (e.g., the input processing devices  895  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) may be obtained (e.g., by the compute normalizer  840  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) (e.g., at operation  1005 ). An input model may be obtained (e.g., at operation  1010 ). The input model may be one of a set of input models that are used to determine efficiency of a device in execution of the input model or a portion thereof based on precision (and other) capabilities of the input processing device. Original processing cycles may be counted (e.g., as part of the precision factor  845  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) for the input model using reference hardware, without precision enhancement by the input device, and the like (e.g., at operation  1015 ). A precision level (e.g., FP32, FP16, INT8, etc.) may be determined for the device (e.g., at operation  1020 ). Precision processing cycles may be counted (e.g., as part of the precision factor  845  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) for the input model using the input device (e.g., at operation  1025 ). A precision factor (e.g., the precision factor  845  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) may be calculated using the original processing cycles and the precision processing cycles (e.g., at operation  1030 ). 
     A theoretical maximum compute power may be determined (e.g., as part of the compute efficiency  850  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) for the input processing device (e.g., at operation  1035 ). A power constraint of may be obtained for the input processing device (e.g., at operation  1040 ). An effective compute power may be calculated for the input processing device based on the constraint using the theoretical maximum compute power (e.g., at operation  1045 ). A compute efficiency factor may be calculated for the input processing device using the theoretical maximum compute power and the effective compute power (e.g., at operation  1050 ). The precision factor and the compute efficiency factor may be output to a heterogeneous IR partitioner (e.g., the heterogenous IR partitioner  835  as described in  FIG. 8 , etc.) for use in generating model partitions for execution on one or more devices (e.g., at operation  1055 ). 
       FIG. 11  illustrates an example of a method  1100  for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning, according to an embodiment. The method  1100  may provide features as described in  FIGS. 8-10 . The method  1100  may be performed by the compute node  700  as described in  FIG. 7A , edge computing node  750  as described in  FIG. 7B , the edge nodes  422 ,  424  as described in  FIG. 4 , compute nodes  515 ,  523 ,  537 ,  544  as described in  FIG. 5 , etc. operating on the edge cloud  110  as described in  FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 6 . 
     An intermediate representation of an input machine learning model may be generated (e.g., at operation  1105 ). In an example, the input machine learning may be converted into an in-memory graph representation. Optimizations may be applied to the input machine learning model using graph compliers to create a simplified input machine learning model and the intermediate representation may be generated using the simplified input machine learning model. In an example, the optimizations may include horizontal node fusion, vertical node fusion, redundant node removal, training node removal, or batchnorm folding. In an example, nodes of the input machine learning model may be sorted topologically and a directed acyclic graph may be generated using the sorted nodes. 
     The intermediate representation may be analyzed to determine compute metrics for execution of the input machine learning model (e.g., at operation  1110 ). In an example, the compute metrics include an operation count for the machine learning model and a sparsity factor for the machine learning model. In an example, operators and attributes of the intermediate representation may be evaluated to calculate giga floating point operations (GFLOPS) or giga integer operations (GIOPS) for execution of the operators and attributes and the operation count may be calculated as a total of the GFLOPS or GIOPS for execution of the intermediate representation. In an example, zero weight values may be identified that are present in the intermediate representation and the sparsity factor may be calculated as a proportion of the identified zero weight values compared to the total weight values present in the intermediate representation. 
     An input processing device may be analyzed to determine normalization metrics for execution of the input machine learning model on the input processing device (e.g., at operation  1115 ). In an example, the normalization metrics include a precision factor for the device and compute efficiency for the device. In an example, a precision determination machine learning model may be executed using the input processing device and the precision factor may be calculated as a difference between a number of computing operations completed during execution of the precision determination machine learning model and a reference number of computing operations completed during execution of the precision determination machine learning model. In an example, a thermal design power may be obtained for the input processing device. A thermal limit may be identified for the input processing device and compute efficiency may be calculated as a proportion of the thermal design power available based on the thermal limit. 
     A partition of the intermediate representation may be generated for the input processing device based on the compute metrics and the normalization metrics (e.g., at operation  1120 ). In an example, a compute normalization factor may be calculated for the input processing device using a precision factor value for the input processing device, a sparsity factor value for the input model, a compute efficiency value for the input processing device, and a maximum compute capacity value for the input processing device. In an example, a total operation count may be determined for the intermediate reference. A number of input processing devices, including the input processing device, may be determined to which partitions of the intermediate representation will be transmitted. A number of operational cycles may be determined for the generated partition using the total operation count, the compute normalization factor, and the number of input processing devices and the partition may be generated to include the number of operational cycles. 
     The partition may be transmitted to the input processing device for execution (e.g., at operation  1125 ). In an example, the partition may be optimized (e.g., simplified, configured, etc.) for the input processing device based on the compute metrics. In another example, the partition may be compiled for execution by the input processing device. 
     Additional Notes &amp; Examples 
     Example 1 is an apparatus for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning comprising: at least one processor; and memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: instantiate generation of an intermediate representation of an input machine learning model; analyze the intermediate representation to determine compute metrics for execution of the input machine learning model; analyze an input processing device to determine normalization metrics for execution of the input machine learning model on the input processing device; instantiate generation of a partition of the intermediate representation for the input processing device based on the compute metrics and the normalization metrics; and instantiate transmission of the partition to the input processing device for execution. 
     In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 includes, the memory further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: instantiate conversion of the input machine learning model into an in-memory graph representation; and cause application of optimizations to the input machine learning model using graph compliers to create a simplified input machine learning model, wherein the intermediate representation is generated using the simplified input machine learning model. 
     In Example 3, the subject matter of Example 2 includes, wherein the optimizations include one or more machine learning optimizations that include horizontal node fusion, vertical node fusion, redundant node removal, training node removal, or batchnorm folding. 
     In Example 4, the subject matter of Examples 1-3 includes, wherein the instructions to generate the intermediate representation further comprises instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: instantiate sorting of nodes of the input machine learning model topologically; and instantiate generation of a directed acyclic graph using the sorted nodes. 
     In Example 5, the subject matter of Examples 1-4 includes, wherein the compute metrics include an operation count for the machine learning model and a sparsity factor for the machine learning model. 
     In Example 6, the subject matter of Example 5 includes, the memory further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: evaluate operators and attributes of the intermediate representation to calculate giga floating point operations (GFLOPS) or giga integer operations (GIOPS) for execution of the operators and attributes; and calculate the operation count as a total of the GFLOPS or GIOPS for execution of the intermediate representation. 
     In Example 7, the subject matter of Examples 5-6 includes, the memory further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: identify zero weight values present in the intermediate representation; and calculate the sparsity factor as a proportion of the identified zero weight values compared to the total weight values present in the intermediate representation. 
     In Example 8, the subject matter of Examples 1-7 includes, wherein the normalization metrics include a precision factor for the device and compute efficiency for the device. 
     In Example 9, the subject matter of Example 8 includes, the memory further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: instantiate execution of a precision determination machine learning model using the input processing device; and calculate the precision factor as a difference between a number of computing operations completed during execution of the precision determination machine learning model and a reference number of computing operations completed during execution of the precision determination machine learning model. 
     In Example 10, the subject matter of Examples 8-9 includes, the memory further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: obtain a thermal design power for the input processing device; identify a thermal limit for the input processing device; and calculate compute efficiency as a proportion of the thermal design power available based on the thermal limit. 
     In Example 11, the subject matter of Examples 1-10 includes, the memory further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: calculate a compute normalization factor for the input processing device using a precision factor value for the input processing device, a sparsity factor value for the input model, a compute efficiency value for the input processing device, and a maximum compute capacity value for the input processing device. 
     In Example 12, the subject matter of Example 11 includes, wherein the instructions to generate the partition of the intermediate representation for the input processing device based on the compute metrics and the normalization metrics further comprises instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: determine a total operation count for the intermediate reference; identify a number of input processing devices, including the input processing device, to which partitions of the intermediate representation will be transmitted; and determine a number of operational cycles for the generated partition using the total operation count, the compute normalization factor, and the number of input processing devices, wherein the partition is generated to include the number of operational cycles. 
     In Example 13, the subject matter of Examples 1-12 includes, the memory further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to optimize the partition for the input processing device based on the compute metrics. 
     In Example 14, the subject matter of Examples 1-13 includes, the memory further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to compile the partition for execution by the input processing device. 
     Example 15 is at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: generate an intermediate representation of an input machine learning model; analyze the intermediate representation to determine compute metrics for execution of the input machine learning model; analyze an input processing device to determine normalization metrics for execution of the input machine learning model on the input processing device; generate a partition of the intermediate representation for the input processing device based on the compute metrics and the normalization metrics; and transmit the partition to the input processing device for execution. 
     In Example 16, the subject matter of Example 15 includes, instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: convert the input machine learning model into an in-memory graph representation; and apply optimizations to the input machine learning model using graph compliers to create a simplified input machine learning model, wherein the intermediate representation is generated using the simplified input machine learning model. 
     In Example 17, the subject matter of Example 16 includes, wherein the optimizations include one or more machine learning optimizations that include horizontal node fusion, vertical node fusion, redundant node removal, training node removal, or batchnorm folding. 
     In Example 18, the subject matter of Examples 15-17 includes, wherein the instructions to generate the intermediate representation further comprises instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: sort nodes of the input machine learning model topologically; and generate a directed acyclic graph using the sorted nodes. 
     In Example 19, the subject matter of Examples 15-18 includes, wherein the compute metrics include an operation count for the machine learning model and a sparsity factor for the machine learning model. 
     In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 19 includes, instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: evaluate operators and attributes of the intermediate representation to calculate giga floating point operations (GFLOPS) or giga integer operations (GIOPS) for execution of the operators and attributes; and calculate the operation count as a total of the GFLOPS or GIOPS for execution of the intermediate representation. 
     In Example 21, the subject matter of Examples 19-20 includes, instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: identify zero weight values present in the intermediate representation; and calculate the sparsity factor as a proportion of the identified zero weight values compared to the total weight values present in the intermediate representation. 
     In Example 22, the subject matter of Examples 15-21 includes, wherein the normalization metrics include a precision factor for the device and compute efficiency for the device. 
     In Example 23, the subject matter of Example 22 includes, instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: instantiate execution of a precision determination machine learning model using the input processing device; and calculate the precision factor as a difference between a number of computing operations completed during execution of the precision determination machine learning model and a reference number of computing operations completed during execution of the precision determination machine learning model. 
     In Example 24, the subject matter of Examples 22-23 includes, instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: obtain a thermal design power for the input processing device; identify a thermal limit for the input processing device; and calculate compute efficiency as a proportion of the thermal design power available based on the thermal limit. 
     In Example 25, the subject matter of Examples 15-24 includes, instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: calculate a compute normalization factor for the input processing device using a precision factor value for the input processing device, a sparsity factor value for the input model, a compute efficiency value for the input processing device, and a maximum compute capacity value for the input processing device. 
     In Example 26, the subject matter of Example 25 includes, wherein the instructions to generate the partition of the intermediate representation for the input processing device based on the compute metrics and the normalization metrics further comprises instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to: determine a total operation count for the intermediate reference; identify a number of input processing devices, including the input processing device, to which partitions of the intermediate representation will be transmitted; and determine a number of operational cycles for the generated partition using the total operation count, the compute normalization factor, and the number of input processing devices, wherein the partition is generated to include the number of operational cycles. 
     In Example 27, the subject matter of Examples 15-26 includes, instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to optimize the partition for the input processing device based on the compute metrics. 
     In Example 28, the subject matter of Examples 15-27 includes, instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations to compile the partition for execution by the input processing device. 
     Example 29 is a method for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning comprising: generating an intermediate representation of an input machine learning model; analyzing the intermediate representation to determine compute metrics for execution of the input machine learning model; analyzing an input processing device to determine normalization metrics for execution of the input machine learning model on the input processing device; generating a partition of the intermediate representation for the input processing device based on the compute metrics and the normalization metrics; and transmitting the partition to the input processing device for execution. 
     In Example 30, the subject matter of Example 29 includes, converting the input machine learning model into an in-memory graph representation; and applying optimizations to the input machine learning model using graph compliers to create a simplified input machine learning model, wherein the intermediate representation is generated using the simplified input machine learning model. 
     In Example 31, the subject matter of Example 30 includes, wherein the optimizations include one or more machine learning optimizations including horizontal node fusion, vertical node fusion, redundant node removal, training node removal, or batchnorm folding. 
     In Example 32, the subject matter of Examples 29-31 includes, wherein generating the intermediate representation further comprises: sorting nodes of the input machine learning model topologically; and generating a directed acyclic graph using the sorted nodes. 
     In Example 33, the subject matter of Examples 29-32 includes, wherein the compute metrics include an operation count for the machine learning model and a sparsity factor for the machine learning model. 
     In Example 34, the subject matter of Example 33 includes, evaluating operators and attributes of the intermediate representation to calculate giga floating point operations (GFLOPS) or giga integer operations (GIOPS) for execution of the operators and attributes; and calculating the operation count as a total of the GFLOPS or GIOPS for execution of the intermediate representation. 
     In Example 35, the subject matter of Examples 33-34 includes, identifying zero weight values present in the intermediate representation; and calculating the sparsity factor as a proportion of the identified zero weight values compared to the total weight values present in the intermediate representation. 
     In Example 36, the subject matter of Examples 29-35 includes, wherein the normalization metrics include a precision factor for the device and compute efficiency for the device. 
     In Example 37, the subject matter of Example 36 includes, causing instantiation of execution of a precision determination machine learning model using the input processing device; and calculating the precision factor as a difference between a number of computing operations completed during execution of the precision determination machine learning model and a reference number of computing operations completed during execution of the precision determination machine learning model. 
     In Example 38, the subject matter of Examples 36-37 includes, obtaining a thermal design power for the input processing device; identifying a thermal limit for the input processing device; and calculating compute efficiency as a proportion of the thermal design power available based on the thermal limit. 
     In Example 39, the subject matter of Examples 29-38 includes, calculating a compute normalization factor for the input processing device using a precision factor value for the input processing device, a sparsity factor value for the input model, a compute efficiency value for the input processing device, and a maximum compute capacity value for the input processing device. 
     In Example 40, the subject matter of Example 39 includes, wherein generating the partition of the intermediate representation for the input processing device based on the compute metrics and the normalization metrics further comprises: determining a total operation count for the intermediate reference; identifying a number of input processing devices, including the input processing device, to which partitions of the intermediate representation will be transmitted; and determining a number of operational cycles for the generated partition using the total operation count, the compute normalization factor, and the number of input processing devices, wherein the partition is generated to include the number of operational cycles. 
     In Example 41, the subject matter of Examples 29-40 includes, optimizing the partition for the input processing device based on the compute metrics. 
     In Example 42, the subject matter of Examples 29-41 includes, compiling the partition for execution by the input processing device. 
     Example 43 is at least one machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform any method of Examples 29-42. 
     Example 44 is a system comprising means to perform any method of Examples 29-42. 
     Example 45 is a system for heterogeneous compute-based artificial intelligence model partitioning comprising: means for generating an intermediate representation of an input machine learning model; means for analyzing the intermediate representation to determine compute metrics for execution of the input machine learning model; means for analyzing an input processing device to determine normalization metrics for execution of the input machine learning model on the input processing device; means for generating a partition of the intermediate representation for the input processing device based on the compute metrics and the normalization metrics; and means for transmitting the partition to the input processing device for execution. 
     In Example 46, the subject matter of Example 45 includes, means for converting the input machine learning model into an in-memory graph representation; and means for applying optimizations to the input machine learning model using graph compliers to create a simplified input machine learning model, wherein the intermediate representation is generated using the simplified input machine learning model. 
     In Example 47, the subject matter of Example 46 includes, wherein the optimizations include one or more machine learning optimizations including horizontal node fusion, vertical node fusion, redundant node removal, training node removal, or batchnorm folding. 
     In Example 48, the subject matter of Examples 45-47 includes, wherein means for generating the intermediate representation further comprises: means for sorting nodes of the input machine learning model topologically; and means for generating a directed acyclic graph using the sorted nodes. 
     In Example 49, the subject matter of Examples 45-48 includes, wherein the compute metrics include an operation count for the machine learning model and a sparsity factor for the machine learning model. 
     In Example 50, the subject matter of Example 49 includes, means for evaluating operators and attributes of the intermediate representation to calculate giga floating point operations (GFLOPS) or giga integer operations (GIOPS) for execution of the operators and attributes; and means for calculating the operation count as a total of the GFLOPS or GIOPS for execution of the intermediate representation. 
     In Example 51, the subject matter of Examples 49-50 includes, means for identifying zero weight values present in the intermediate representation; and means for calculating the sparsity factor as a proportion of the identified zero weight values compared to the total weight values present in the intermediate representation. 
     In Example 52, the subject matter of Examples 45-51 includes, wherein the normalization metrics include a precision factor for the device and compute efficiency for the device. 
     In Example 53, the subject matter of Example 52 includes, means for instantiating execution of a precision determination machine learning model using the input processing device; and means for calculating the precision factor as a difference between a number of computing operations completed during execution of the precision determination machine learning model and a reference number of computing operations completed during execution of the precision determination machine learning model. 
     In Example 54, the subject matter of Examples 52-53 includes, means for obtaining a thermal design power for the input processing device; means for identifying a thermal limit for the input processing device; and means for calculating compute efficiency as a proportion of the thermal design power available based on the thermal limit. 
     In Example 55, the subject matter of Examples 45-54 includes, means for calculating a compute normalization factor for the input processing device using a precision factor value for the input processing device, a sparsity factor value for the input model, a compute efficiency value for the input processing device, and a maximum compute capacity value for the input processing device. 
     In Example 56, the subject matter of Example 55 includes, wherein means for generating the partition of the intermediate representation for the input processing device based on the compute metrics and the normalization metrics further comprises: means for determining a total operation count for the intermediate reference; means for identifying a number of input processing devices, including the input processing device, to which partitions of the intermediate representation will be transmitted; and means for determining a number of operational cycles for the generated partition using the total operation count, the compute normalization factor, and the number of input processing devices, wherein the partition is generated to include the number of operational cycles. 
     In Example 57, the subject matter of Examples 45-56 includes, means for optimizing the partition for the input processing device based on the compute metrics. 
     In Example 58, the subject matter of Examples 45-57 includes, means for compiling the partition for execution by the input processing device. 
     Example 59 is at least one machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations to implement of any of Examples 1-58. 
     Example 60 is an apparatus comprising means to implement of any of Examples 1-58. 
     Example 61 is a system to implement of any of Examples 1-58. 
     Example 62 is a method to implement of any of Examples 1-58. 
     Example 63 is at least one machine-readable medium including instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations of any of the operations of Examples 1-58. 
     Example 64 is an apparatus comprising means for performing any of the operations of Examples 1-58. 
     Example 65 is a system to perform the operations of any of the Examples 1-58. 
     Example 66 is a method to perform the operations of any of the Examples 1-58. 
     The above detailed description includes references to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of the detailed description. The drawings show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments that may be practiced. These embodiments are also referred to herein as “examples.” Such examples may include elements in addition to those shown or described. However, the present inventors also contemplate examples in which only those elements shown or described are provided. Moreover, the present inventors also contemplate examples using any combination or permutation of those elements shown or described (or one or more aspects thereof), either with respect to a particular example (or one or more aspects thereof), or with respect to other examples (or one or more aspects thereof) shown or described herein. 
     All publications, patents, and patent documents referred to in this document are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, as though individually incorporated by reference. In the event of inconsistent usages between this document and those documents so incorporated by reference, the usage in the incorporated reference(s) should be considered supplementary to that of this document; for irreconcilable inconsistencies, the usage in this document controls. 
     In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patent documents, to include one or more than one, independent of any other instances or usages of “at least one” or “one or more.” In this document, the term “or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that “A or B” includes “A but not B,” “B but not A,” and “A and B,” unless otherwise indicated. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein.” Also, in the following claims, the terms “including” and “comprising” are open-ended, that is, a system, device, article, or process that includes elements in addition to those listed after such a term in a claim are still deemed to fall within the scope of that claim. Moreover, in the following claims, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects. 
     The above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. For example, the above-described examples (or one or more aspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. Other embodiments may be used, such as by one of ordinary skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The Abstract is to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure and is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Also, in the above Detailed Description, various features may be grouped together to streamline the disclosure. This should not be interpreted as intending that an unclaimed disclosed feature is essential to any claim. Rather, inventive subject matter may lie in less than all features of a particular disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. The scope of the embodiments should be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.