Differences with MKL 2017 DNN

[Maratyszcza]

What are the differences between this version, and DNN primitives in MKL 2017? I see that the interfaces are different.

[emfomenk]

Hi @Maratyszcza,

For the description of current differences please see this comment.

MKL-DNN interface was re-thought, in particular layout (mkldnn_memory_desc_t) become transparent, while in Intel MKL it is opaque for user. For the rest Intel MKL (DNN primitives) and MKL-DNN are pretty close.

[Maratyszcza]

Thank you. Will Intel MKL adapt interfaces of MKL-DNN in the future, or there will be two parallel sets of interfaces?

[emfomenk]

We definitely want to use one single API for both Intel MKL and MKL-DNN. This single API will be MKL-DNN one.
Alas, right now I can't estimate when this will happen. Also since Intel MKL has to provide backward compatibility, DNN interface of Intel MKL will also remain supported for time being (at least for several years after deprecation notice).

[bhack]

@Maratyszcza Do you plan to integrate in NNPACK?

[Maratyszcza]

@bhack Integrate what?

[bhack]

I mean using NNPACK internal implementation and MKL-DNN with the same NNPACK API..

[Maratyszcza]

No, this wouldn't be efficient. MKL-DNN uses a different layout for layers.

[bhack]

@Maratyszcza So.. We need to interface another engine in tiny 😉