Pipelined pointwise convolution using per-channel convolution operations

A method, comprising:

• receiving a three-dimensional convolution operation instruction specifying a convolution data matrix;
• identifying separate convolution operations from the received three-dimensional convolution operation instruction;
• using a hardware channel convolution processor unit to:
• perform a depthwise convolution operation with a portion of the convolution data matrix and a plurality of depthwise convolution weight matrices;
• and
• determine a portion of depthwise convolution results;
• and
• using a hardware dot product processor unit to:
• perform a pipelined pointwise convolution operation using the portion of depthwise convolution results and a plurality of pointwise weight matrices while at least another portion of the depthwise convolution results is being calculated in parallel by the hardware channel convolution processor unit;
• and
• determine separable convolution results;
• wherein the hardware channel convolution processor unit and the hardware dot product processor unit are different hardware units and the portion of depthwise convolution results is provided from the hardware channel convolution processor unit to the hardware dot product processor unit for pipeline processing.

A method, comprising:

• for each data element of a first group of data elements of a plurality of channels of a portion of a convolution data matrix, multiplying at a hardware channel convolution processor unit the data element of the first group of data elements with a corresponding data element of a second group of data elements of a plurality of depthwise convolution weight matrices to determine a corresponding multiplication result of multiplication results;
• for each specific channel of the plurality of channels, summing together at the hardware channel convolution processor unit ones of the multiplication results corresponding to the specific channel to determine one corresponding channel convolution result data element in a corresponding channel convolution result matrix to calculate a portion of depthwise convolution results;
• transmitting the portion of depthwise convolution results from the hardware channel convolution processor unit to a hardware dot product processor unit for pipeline processing;
• and
• applying at the hardware dot product processor unit pointwise weight matrices to the portion of depthwise convolution results calculated using the hardware channel convolution processor unit to determine a portion of separable convolution results while at least another portion of the depthwise convolution results is being calculated in parallel by the hardware channel convolution processor unit;
• wherein the hardware channel convolution processor unit and the hardware dot product processor unit are different hardware units U.