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Category: MXNet

We’re working on an update for the AIXPRT OpenVINO workload

Shortly after the initial AIXPRT release, we noted that each of the toolkits AIXPRT uses (Intel OpenVINO, TensorFlow, NVIDIA TensorRT, and Apache MXNet) is on its own development schedule, and new versions will sometimes appear with little warning. When this happens, we’ll have to respond by updating specific AIXPRT installation packages, giving AIXPRT testers relatively short notice.

This is one of those times! Intel recently released OpenVINO 2020.3 Long-Term Support (LTS), and we’re planning to update the AIXPRT OpenVINO packages with the LTS version. The LTS version targets environments that benefit from maximum stability, and don’t require a constant stream of new tools and feature changes. In other words, it’s well suited for a benchmark, and we think it’s a good fit for AIXPRT moving forward.

We don’t yet know what impact the new version will have on AIXPRT OpenVINO test results. A substantial part of the development process will involve testing the new packages on a variety of platforms to see how performance changes. We’ll communicate our findings here in the blog, so AIXPRT testers will know what to expect.

Thankfully, the modular nature of the AIXPRT installation packages ensures that we don’t need to revise the entire AIXPRT suite every time a toolkit update goes live. If you test with only TensorFlow, TensorRT, or MXNet, or a combination of those toolkits, this update won’t affect your testing.

We’re not ready to commit to a release date for the new build, but anticipate it will be in September.

If you have any questions about AIXPRT or OpenVINO, please let us know!

Justin

The Introduction to AIXPRT white paper is now available!

Today, we published the Introduction to AIXPRT white paper. The paper serves as an overview of the benchmark and a consolidation of AIXPRT-related information that we’ve published in the XPRT blog over the past several months. For folks who are completely new to AIXPRT and veteran testers who need to brush up on pre-test configuration procedures, we hope this paper will be a quick, one-stop reference that helps reduce the learning curve.

The paper describes the AIXPRT toolkits and workloads, adjusting key test parameters (batch size, level of precision, number of concurrent instances, and default number of requests), using alternate test configuration files, understanding and submitting results, and accessing the source code.

We hope that Introduction to AIXPRT will prove to be a valuable resource. Moving forward, readers will be able to access the paper from the Helpful Info box on AIXPRT.com and the AIXPRT section of our XPRT white papers page. If you have any questions about AIXPRT, please let us know!

Justin

Understanding AIXPRT’s default number of requests

A few weeks ago, we discussed how AIXPRT testers can adjust the key variables of batch size, levels of precision, and number of concurrent instances by editing the JSON test configuration file in the AIXPRT/Config directory. In addition to those key variables, there is another variable in the config file called “total_requests” that has a different default setting depending on the AIXPRT test package you choose. This setting can significantly affect a test run, so it’s important for testers to know how it works.

The total_requests variable specifies how many inference requests AIXPRT will send to a network (e.g., ResNet-50) during one test iteration at a given batch size (e.g., Batch 1, 2, 4, etc.). This simulates the inference demand that the end users place on the system. Because we designed AIXPRT to run on different types of hardware, it makes sense to set the default number of requests for each test package to suit the most likely hardware environment for that package.

For example, testing with OpenVINO on Windows aligns more closely with a consumer (i.e., desktop or laptop) scenario than testing with OpenVINO on Ubuntu, which is more typical of server/datacenter testing. Desktop testers require a much lower inference demand than server testers, so the default total_requests settings for the two packages reflect that. The default for the OpenVINO/Windows package is 500, while the default for the OpenVINO/Ubuntu package is 5,000.

Also, setting the number of requests so low that a system finishes each workload in less than 1 second can produce high run-to-run variation, so our default settings represent a lower boundary that will work well for common test scenarios.

Below, we provide the current default total_requests setting for each AIXPRT test package:

  • MXNet: 1,000
  • OpenVINO Ubuntu: 5,000
  • OpenVINO Windows: 500
  • TensorFlow Ubuntu: 100
  • TensorFlow Windows: 10
  • TensorRT Ubuntu: 5,000
  • TensorRT Windows: 500


Testers can adjust these variables in the config file according to their own needs. Finding the optimal combination of machine learning variables for each scenario is often a matter of trial and error, and the default settings represent what we think is a reasonable starting point for each test package.

To adjust the total_requests setting, start by locating and opening the JSON test configuration file in the AIXPRT/Config directory. Below, we show a section of the default config file (CPU_INT8.json) for the OpenVINO-Windows test package (AIXPRT_1.0_OpenVINO_Windows.zip). For each batch size, the total_requests setting appears at the bottom of the list of configurable variables. In this case, the default setting Is 500. Change the total_requests numerical value for each batch size in the config file, save your changes, and close the file.

Total requests snip

Note that if you are running multiple concurrent instances, OpenVINO and TensorRT automatically distribute the number of requests among the instances. MXNet and TensorFlow users must manually allocate the instances in the config file. You can find an example of how to structure manual allocation here. We hope to make this process automatic for all toolkits in a future update.

We hope this information helps you understand the total_requests setting, and why the default values differ from one test package to another. If you have any questions or comments about this or other aspects of AIXPRT, please let us know.

Justin

AIXPRT is here!

We’re happy to announce that AIXPRT is now available to the public! AIXPRT includes support for the Intel OpenVINO, TensorFlow, and NVIDIA TensorRT toolkits to run image-classification and object-detection workloads with the ResNet-50 and SSD-MobileNet v1networks, as well as a Wide and Deep recommender system workload with the Apache MXNet toolkit. The test reports FP32, FP16, and INT8 levels of precision.

To access AIXPRT, visit the AIXPRT download page. There, a download table displays the AIXPRT test packages. Locate the operating system and toolkit you wish to test and click the corresponding Download link. For detailed installation instructions and information on hardware and software requirements for each package, click the package’s Readme link. If you’re not sure which AIXPRT package to choose, the AIXPRT package selector tool will help to guide you through the selection process.

In addition, the Helpful Info box on AIXPRT.com contains links to a repository of AIXPRT resources, as well links to XPRT blog discussions about key AIXPRT test configuration settings such as batch size and precision.

We hope AIXPRT will prove to be a valuable tool for you, and we’re thankful for all the input we received during the preview period! If you have any questions about AIXPRT, please let us know.

Coming soon: An interactive AIXPRT selector tool

AI workloads are now relevant to all types of hardware, from servers to laptops to IOT devices, so we intentionally designed AIXPRT to support a wide range of potential hardware, toolkit, and workload configurations. This approach provides AIXPRT testers with a tool that is flexible enough to adapt to a variety of environments. The downside is that the number of options makes it fairly complicated to figure out which AIXPRT download package suits your needs.

To help testers navigate this complexity, we’ve been working on a new interactive selector tool. The tool is not yet live, but the screenshots and descriptions below provide a preview of what’s to come.

The tool will include drop-down menus for the key factors that go into determining the correct AIXPRT download package, along with a description of the options. Users can proceed in any order but will need to make a selection for each category. Since not all combinations work together, each selection the user makes will eliminate some of the options in the remaining categories.

AIXPRT user guide snip 1

After a user selects an option, a check mark appears on the category icon, and the selection for that category appears in the category box (e.g., TensorFlow in the Toolkit category). This shows users which categories they’ve completed and the selections they’ve made. After a user selects options in more than one category, a Start over button appears in the lower-left corner. Clicking this button clears all existing selections and provides users with a clean slate.

Once every category is complete, a Download button appears in the lower-right corner. When you click this, a popup appears that provides a link for the correct download package and associated readme file.

AIXPRT user guide snip 2

We hope the selector tool will help make the AIXPRT download and installation process easier for those who are unfamiliar with the benchmark. Testers who already know exactly which package they need will be able to bypass the tool and go directly to a download table.

The tool will debut with the AIXPRT 1.0 GA in the next few days, and we’ll let everyone know when that happens! If you have any questions or comments about AIXPRT, please let us know.

Justin

AIXPRT Community Preview 3 is here!

We’re happy to announce that the AIXPRT Community Preview 3 (CP3) is now available! As we discussed in last week’s blog, testers can expect three significant changes in AIXPRT CP3:

  • We updated support for the Ubuntu test packages from Ubuntu version 16.04 LTS to version 18.04 LTS.
  • We added TensorRT test packages for Windows and Ubuntu. Previously, AIXPRT testers could test only the TensorFlow variant of TensorRT. Now, they can use TensorRT to test systems with NVIDIA GPUs.
  • We added the Wide and Deep recommender system workload with the MXNet toolkit for Ubuntu systems.


To access AIXPRT CP3, click this access link and submit the brief information form unless you’ve already done so for CP2. You will then gain access to the AIXPRT community preview page. (If you’re not already a BenchmarkXPRT Development Community member, we’ll contact you with more information about your membership.)

On the community preview page, a download table displays the currently available AIXPRT CP3 test packages. Locate the operating system and toolkit you wish to test, and click the corresponding Download link. For detailed installation instructions and information on hardware and software requirements for each package, click the corresponding Readme link. Instead of providing installation guide PDFs as we did for CP2, we are now directing testers to a public GitHub repository. The repository contains the installation readmes for all the test packages, as well as a selection of alternative test configuration files. We’ll discuss the alternative configuration files in more detail in a future blog post.

Note: Those who have access to the existing AIXPRT GitHub repository will be able to access CP3 in the same way as previous versions.

We’ll continue to keep everyone up to date with AIXPRT news here in the blog. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know.

Justin

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