# DEX: Data Channel Extension for Efficient CNN Inference on Tiny AI Accelerators

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.06566 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06566/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 27 of its 49 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Dec 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [MobileNetV2: Inverted Residuals and Linear Bottlenecks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.04381/) (2018)
- [Deep Compression: Compressing Deep Neural Networks with Pruning, Trained Quantization and Huffman Coding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1510.00149/) (2015)
- [Quantization and Training of Neural Networks for Efficient Integer-Arithmetic-Only Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.05877/) (2017)
- [EfficientNetV2: Smaller Models and Faster Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00298/) (2021)
- [XNOR-Net: ImageNet Classification Using Binary Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.05279/) (2016)
- [Once-for-All: Train One Network and Specialize it for Efficient Deployment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.09791/) (2019)
- [Channel Pruning for Accelerating Very Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06168/) (2017)
- [Learning Efficient Convolutional Networks through Network Slimming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.06519/) (2017)
- [ProxylessNAS: Direct Neural Architecture Search on Target Task and Hardware](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.00332/) (2018)
- [DoReFa-Net: Training Low Bitwidth Convolutional Neural Networks with Low Bitwidth Gradients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.06160/) (2016)
- [PACT: Parameterized Clipping Activation for Quantized Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.06085/) (2018)
- [HAQ: Hardware-Aware Automated Quantization with Mixed Precision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.08886/) (2018)
- [An Intriguing Failing of Convolutional Neural Networks and the CoordConv Solution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.03247/) (2018)
- [MetaPruning: Meta Learning for Automatic Neural Network Channel Pruning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.10258/) (2019)
- [Trained Ternary Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.01064/) (2016)
- [On-Device Training Under 256KB Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.15472/) (2022)
- [MCUNetV2: Memory-Efficient Patch-based Inference for Tiny Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.15352/) (2021)
- [Depth-aware CNN for RGB-D Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.06791/) (2018)
- [μNAS: Constrained Neural Architecture Search for Microcontrollers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.14246/) (2020)
- [SpArSe: Sparse Architecture Search for CNNs on Resource-Constrained Microcontrollers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.12107/) (2019)
- [Memory-Driven Mixed Low Precision Quantization For Enabling Deep Network Inference On Microcontrollers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.13082/) (2019)
- [Lets keep it simple, Using simple architectures to outperform deeper and more complex architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06037/) (2016)
- [TinyissimoYOLO: A Quantized, Low-Memory Footprint, TinyML Object Detection Network for Low Power Microcontrollers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00001/) (2023)
- [Differentiable Network Pruning for Microcontrollers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08350/) (2021)
- [Location Augmentation for CNN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.07044/) (2018)
- [Multi-Channel CNN-based Object Detection for Enhanced Situation Awareness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.00075/) (2017)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Neural Network Quantization for Microcontrollers: A Comprehensive Survey of Methods, Platforms, and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.15008/) (2025)
- [Benchmarking Ultra-Low-Power μNPUs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.22567/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Tiny machine learning (TinyML) aims to run ML models on small devices and is increasingly favored for its enhanced privacy, reduced latency, and low cost. Recently, the advent of tiny AI accelerators has revolutionized the TinyML field by significantly enhancing hardware processing power. These accelerators, equipped with multiple parallel processors and dedicated per-processor memory instances, offer substantial performance improvements over traditional microcontroller units (MCUs). However, their limited data memory often necessitates downsampling input images, resulting in accuracy degradation. To address this challenge, we propose Data channel EXtension (DEX), a novel approach for efficient CNN execution on tiny AI accelerators. DEX incorporates additional spatial information from original images into input images through patch-wise even sampling and channel-wise stacking, effectively extending data across input channels. By leveraging underutilized processors and data memory for channel extension, DEX facilitates parallel execution without increasing inference latency. Our evaluation with four models and four datasets on tiny AI accelerators demonstrates that this simple idea improves accuracy on average by 3.5%p while keeping the inference latency the same on the AI accelerator. The source code is available at https://github.com/Nokia-Bell-Labs/data-channel-extension.