DeepCuts: a deep learning optimization framework for versatile GPU workloads

Abstract

Widely used Deep Learning (DL) frameworks, such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and MXNet, heavily rely on the NVIDIA cuDNN for performance. However, using cuDNN does not always give the best performance. One reason is that it is hard to handle every case of versatile DNN models and GPU architectures with a library that has a fixed implementation. Another reason is that cuDNN lacks kernel fusion functionality that gives a lot of chances to improve performance. In this paper, we propose a DL optimization framework for versatile GPU workloads, called DeepCuts. It considers both kernel implementation parameters and GPU architectures. It analyzes the DL workload, groups multiple DL operations into a single GPU kernel, and generates optimized GPU kernels considering kernel implementation parameters and GPU architecture parameters. The evaluation result with various DL workloads for inference and training indicates that DeepCuts outperforms cuDNN/cuBLAS-based implementations and the state-of-the-art DL optimization frameworks, such as TVM, TensorFlow XLA, and TensorRT.