# AMED: Automatic Mixed-Precision Quantization for Edge Devices

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.15437 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.15437/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 35 of its 55 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 30 May 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 35)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [MobileNetV2: Inverted Residuals and Linear Bottlenecks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.04381/) (2018)
- [Encoder-Decoder with Atrous Separable Convolution for Semantic Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.02611/) (2018)
- [Estimating or Propagating Gradients Through Stochastic Neurons for Conditional Computation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1308.3432/) (2013)
- [Learning both Weights and Connections for Efficient Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02626/) (2015)
- [DARTS: Differentiable Architecture Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.09055/) (2018)
- [Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02243/) (2019)
- [ProxylessNAS: Direct Neural Architecture Search on Target Task and Hardware](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.00332/) (2018)
- [Learned Step Size Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.08153/) (2019)
- [DoReFa-Net: Training Low Bitwidth Convolutional Neural Networks with Low Bitwidth Gradients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.06160/) (2016)
- [FBNet: Hardware-Aware Efficient ConvNet Design via Differentiable Neural Architecture Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03443/) (2018)
- [PACT: Parameterized Clipping Activation for Quantized Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.06085/) (2018)
- [Quantized Neural Networks: Training Neural Networks with Low Precision Weights and Activations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.07061/) (2016)
- [HAWQ: Hessian AWare Quantization of Neural Networks with Mixed-Precision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.03696/) (2019)
- [LQ-Nets: Learned Quantization for Highly Accurate and Compact Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.10029/) (2018)
- [HAWQ-V2: Hessian Aware trace-Weighted Quantization of Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.03852/) (2019)
- [Differentiable Soft Quantization: Bridging Full-Precision and Low-Bit Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.05033/) (2019)
- [Speeding-up Convolutional Neural Networks Using Fine-tuned CP-Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6553/) (2014)
- [Bit Fusion: Bit-Level Dynamically Composable Architecture for Accelerating Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.01507/) (2017)
- [Soft Weight-Sharing for Neural Network Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.04008/) (2017)
- [Loss Aware Post-training Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.07190/) (2019)
- [Training Quantized Nets: A Deeper Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02379/) (2017)
- [Towards Mixed-Precision Quantization of Neural Networks via Constrained Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.06554/) (2021)
- [FracBits: Mixed Precision Quantization via Fractional Bit-Widths](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.02017/) (2020)
- [Mixed-Precision Neural Network Quantization via Learned Layer-wise Importance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.08368/) (2022)
- [PROFIT: A Novel Training Method for sub-4-bit MobileNet Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.04693/) (2020)
- [An End-to-End Learning-based Cost Estimator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02560/) (2019)
- [BSQ: Exploring Bit-Level Sparsity for Mixed-Precision Neural Network Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.10462/) (2021)
- [NICE: Noise Injection and Clamping Estimation for Neural Network Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.00162/) (2018)
- [Differentiable Dynamic Quantization with Mixed Precision and Adaptive Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.02295/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Optimizing Large Language Models through Quantization: A Comparative Analysis of PTQ and QAT Techniques](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.06084/) (2024)
- [Hysteresis Activation Function for Efficient Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.10573/) (2024)
- [R3: Reconstruction, Raw, and Rain: Deraining Directly in the Bayer Domain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.24022/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Quantized neural networks are well known for reducing the latency, power consumption, and model size without significant harm to the performance. This makes them highly appropriate for systems with limited resources and low power capacity. Mixed-precision quantization offers better utilization of customized hardware that supports arithmetic operations at different bitwidths. Quantization methods either aim to minimize the compression loss given a desired reduction or optimize a dependent variable for a specified property of the model (such as FLOPs or model size); both make the performance inefficient when deployed on specific hardware, but more importantly, quantization methods assume that the loss manifold holds a global minimum for a quantized model that copes with the global minimum of the full precision counterpart. Challenging this assumption, we argue that the optimal minimum changes as the precision changes, and thus, it is better to look at quantization as a random process, placing the foundation for a different approach to quantize neural networks, which, during the training procedure, quantizes the model to a different precision, looks at the bit allocation as a Markov Decision Process, and then, finds an optimal bitwidth allocation for measuring specified behaviors on a specific device via direct signals from the particular hardware architecture. By doing so, we avoid the basic assumption that the loss behaves the same way for a quantized model. Automatic Mixed-Precision Quantization for Edge Devices (dubbed AMED) demonstrates its superiority over current state-of-the-art schemes in terms of the trade-off between neural network accuracy and hardware efficiency, backed by a comprehensive evaluation.