# Improving Performance Estimation for FPGA-based Accelerators for Convolutional Neural Networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.00190 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.00190/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Feb 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

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- [LEAPER: Fast and Accurate FPGA-based System Performance Prediction via Transfer Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.10606/) (2022)
- [QiMeng: Fully Automated Hardware and Software Design for Processor Chip](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05007/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based accelerators are being widely used for acceleration of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) due to their potential in improving the performance and reconfigurability for specific application instances. To determine the optimal configuration of an FPGA-based accelerator, it is necessary to explore the design space and an accurate performance prediction plays an important role during the exploration. This work introduces a novel method for fast and accurate estimation of latency based on a Gaussian process parametrised by an analytic approximation and coupled with runtime data. The experiments conducted on three different CNNs on an FPGA-based accelerator on Intel Arria 10 GX 1150 demonstrated a 30.7% improvement in accuracy with respect to the mean absolute error in comparison to a standard analytic method in leave-one-out cross-validation.