Mapping convolution to connected processing elements using distributed pipelined separable convolution operations

A method comprising:

• determining a vector of depthwise convolution partial result elements using a dot product engine of a first processing element, wherein the vector of depthwise convolution partial result elements corresponds to a matrix slice from an assigned channel of a three-dimensional data matrix and a separate depthwise convolution weight matrix;
• providing the vector of depthwise convolution partial result elements to an element-wise multiplication unit of the first processing element;
• determining element-wise multiplication results for each element of the vector of depthwise convolution partial result elements by performing multiplication operations of a pointwise convolution using the each element and corresponding data elements from a channel of a plurality of pointwise convolution weight filters;
• providing the element-wise multiplication results for each element of the vector of depthwise convolution partial result elements to a reduction unit of the first processing element;
• receiving upstream results from a second processing element via a first point-to-point connection;
• summing together the upstream results with the corresponding element-wise multiplication results to determine reduction unit results;
• and
• sending the reduction unit results to a third processing element via a second point-to-point connection.

A processing element system, comprising:

• a dot product processor unit configured to perform a depthwise convolution using a two-dimensional matrix slice of a three-dimensional data matrix with a depthwise convolution weight matrix of a plurality of depthwise convolution weight matrices;
• an element-wise multiplication unit configured to at least in part perform multiplication operations of a pointwise convolution by applying to each depthwise convolution partial result element received from the dot product processor unit a corresponding data element from each of a plurality of pointwise convolution weight filters to determine local element-wise multiplication unit results;
• a first point-to-point connection configured to receive an upstream result from an upstream processing element;
• a reduction unit configured to sum together the received upstream result and the determined local element-wise multiplication unit results to determine a reduction unit result;
• and
• a second point-to-point connection configured to provide the determined reduction unit result to a downstream processing element.