CKFO: Convolution Kernel First Operated Algorithm with Applications in Memristor-Based Convolutional Neural Network

This article presents a new convolution algorithm: convolution kernel first operated (CKFO), which can solve the problem that the actual calculation is not reduced after pruning the weight of the convolution neural network. According to the convolution algorithm, this article proposes a simulated memristor implementation of a convolutional neural network (CNN). After that, we use the method of ex-situ training to train CNN in Tensorflow and then download the trained parameters to the Simulink system by compiling the conductance value of memristor to test the proposed simulation model. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed model is verified. In addition, we prune the weights of CNN and retrain it, then adjust the simulation model according to the parameters after being pruned. We are surprised to find that the convolution layer designed according to the new convolution algorithm can apply the results of the pruned weight without any modification to the circuit, which is very cumbersome in other memristor-based CNN because the distribution of the pruned weight is irregular. The parameters are reduced by 75.24% and the number of multiplication operations in the convolution layer was reduced by 30.1%, while the accuracy is just reduced by 0.06%.