# AIRCHITECT: Learning Custom Architecture Design and Mapping Space. (arXiv:2108.08295v1 [cs.LG])

Design space exploration is an important but costly step involved in the
design/deployment of custom architectures to squeeze out maximum possible
performance and energy efficiency. Conventionally, optimizations require
iterative sampling of the design space using simulation or heuristic tools. In
this paper we investigate the possibility of learning the optimization task
using machine learning and hence using the learnt model to predict optimal
parameters for the design and mapping space of custom architectures, bypassing
any exploration step. We use three case studies involving the optimal array
design, SRAM buffer sizing, mapping, and schedule determination for
systolic-array-based custom architecture design and mapping space. Within the
purview of these case studies, we show that it is possible to capture the
design space and train a model to “generalize” prediction the optimal design
and mapping parameters when queried with workload and design constraints. We
perform systematic design-aware and statistical analysis of the optimization
space for our case studies and highlight the patterns in the design space. We
formulate the architecture design and mapping as a machine learning problem
that allows us to leverage existing ML models for training and inference. We
design and train a custom network architecture called AIRCHITECT, which is
capable of learning the architecture design space with as high as 94.3% test
accuracy and predicting optimal configurations which achieve on average
(GeoMean) of 99.9% the best possible performance on a test dataset with $10^5$