The dataflow concept has been successfully used for modeling and synthesizing signal processing applications since decades, and recently, dataflow has also been discovered to match the computation model of machine learning applications, leading to extremely successful dataflow based application design frameworks. One of the most attractive features of dataflow, especially for signal processing, is related to its formal nature: when properly defined, a dataflow-based application model can be analytically verified for correctness at the stage of application design. This paper proposes VR-PRUNE, a novel dataflow model of computation that is aimed for design of high-performance signal processing software, together with runtime support that allows efficient application deployment to heterogeneous GPU-equipped platforms. Compared to prior work, VR-PRUNE features variable token rate processing, which enables designing adaptive signal processing applications, and implementing solutions that, e.g., allow trading-off between power consumption and filtering bandwidth at runtime. The paper presents the formal concepts of VR-PRUNE, as well as four application examples from domains related to signal processing, accompanied with quantitative results, which show that using VR-PRUNE enables, for example, application power-performance scaling, and on the other hand describing adaptive application behavior with 59% fewer dataflow graph components compared to previous work.
Dynamic dataflow models of computation have become widely used through their adoption to popular programming frameworks such as TensorFlow and GNU Radio. Although dynamic dataflow models offer more programming freedom, they lack analyzability compared to their static counterparts (such as synchronous dataflow).In this paper we advocate the use of a boundedly dynamic dataflow model of computation, VR-PRUNE, that remains analyzable but still offers more programming freedom than a fully static dataflow model.The paper presents the VR-PRUNE model of computation and runtime, and illustrates its applicability to practical signal processing applications by two use cases: an adaptive convolutional neural network, and a predistortion filter for wireless communications. By runtime experiments on two heterogeneous computing platforms we show that VR-PRUNE is both flexible and efficient.
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