aiqbench analysis
This research demonstrates the feasibility of deploying ultra-low-latency machine learning models directly within radiation-hard FPGAs for high-energy physics applications like the LHCb Upgrade II experiment. By extending hls4ml to support Microchip PolarFire devices, the authors achieve a 25 ns latency while utilizing only protected FPGA logic through effective model compression and quantization. This work removes critical software barriers that have historically hindered on-detector AI adoption in harsh environments where traditional GPUs fail.
Enabling Low-Latency Machine learning on Radiation-Hard FPGAs with hls4ml
arXiv:2602.15751v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: This paper presents an end-to-end demonstration of a viable, ultra-fast, radiation-hard machine learning (ML) application on FPGAs, which could be used in future high-energy physics experiments. We present a three-fold contribution, with the PicoCal calorimeter, planned for the LHCb Upgrade II experiment, used as a test case. First, we develop a lightweight autoencoder to compress a 32-sample timing readout, representative of that of the PicoCal, into a two-dimensional latent space. Second, we introduce a systematic, hardware-aware quantization strategy and show that the model can be reduced to 10-bit weights with minimal performance loss. Third, as a barrier to the adoption of on-detector ML is the lack of support for radiation-hard FPGAs in the High-Energy Physics community's standard ML synthesis tool, hls4ml, we develop a new backend for this library. This new back-end enables the automatic translation of ML models into High-Level Synthesis (HLS) projects for the Microchip PolarFire family of FPGAs, one of the few commercially available and radiation hard FPGAs. We present the synthesis of the autoencoder on a target PolarFire FPGA, which indicates that a latency of 25 ns can be achieved. We show that the resources utilized are low enough that the model can be placed within the inherently protected logic of the FPGA. Our extension to hls4ml is a significant contribution, paving the way for broader adoption of ML on FPGAs in high-radiation environments.
Abstract:This paper presents an end-to-end demonstration of a viable, ultra-fast, radiation-hard machine learning (ML) application on FPGAs, which could be used in future high-energy physics experiments. We present a three-fold contribution, with the PicoCal calorimeter, planned for the LHCb Upgrade II experiment, used as a test case. First, we develop a lightweight autoencoder to compress a 32-sample timing readout, representative of that of the PicoCal, into a two-dimensional latent space. Second, we introduce a systematic, hardware-aware quantization strategy and show that the model can be reduced to 10-bit weights with minimal performance loss. Third, as a barrier to the adoption of on-detector ML is the lack of support for radiation-hard FPGAs in the High-Energy Physics community's standard ML synthesis tool, hls4ml, we develop a new backend for this library. This new back-end enables the automatic translation of ML models into High-Level Synthesis (HLS) projects for the Microchip PolarFire family of FPGAs, one of the few commercially available and radiation hard FPGAs. We present the synthesis of the autoencoder on a target PolarFire FPGA, which indicates that a latency of 25 ns can be achieved. We show that the resources utilized are low enough that the model can be placed within the inherently protected logic of the FPGA. Our extension to hls4ml is a significant contribution, paving the way for broader adoption of ML on FPGAs in high-radiation environments.
High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex); Machine Learning (cs.LG)
arXiv:2602.15751 [hep-ex]
(or arXiv:2602.15751v2 [hep-ex] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.15751 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-2153/ae8218 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources
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