aiqbench analysis
This arXiv preprint proposes a training system for large models that splits work across heterogeneous GPU pipelines more finely than current layer-count balancing, and reports up to 2x training speedup and up to 56x lower configuration search overhead versus prior systems. These are self-reported results on the authors' benchmarks, and the code is public, so independent replication is possible. For readers, the practical relevance is cost and throughput when training on mixed hardware clusters, not a change to model capabilities.
ETH: Data-Balanced Heterogeneous Pipeline Parallelism for Training Large Models
arXiv:2610.22035v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Current heterogeneity-aware training systems for large models balance workloads by assigning unequal numbers of layers across pipeline stages, a strategy aimed at equalizing execution time through a unique pipeline configuration. However, this approach fails to address critical memory constraints and suffers from inherently coarse balancing granularity. In this paper, we propose Heterogeneous Pipeline Parallelism (HPP), a novel approach enabling efficient and fine-grained data balance across heterogeneous pipelines. To address HPP's key challenges, prohibitive search overhead for optimal configurations and high communication overhead from asymmetric All-Reduce, we design the ETH training system. ETH employs a hierarchical workload balance framework that jointly optimizes balance across heterogeneous pipelines and within individual pipeline stages. To mitigate asymmetric communication costs, ETH implements block-wise gradient aggregation. Furthermore, it integrates specialized optimizations that dramatically reduce HPP configuration search overhead. Evaluations demonstrate ETH achieves up to 2x training speedup while reducing configuration generation overhead by up to 56x compared to state-of-the-art systems. The code is available at https://github.com/YuMJie/ETH.
Abstract:Current heterogeneity-aware training systems for large models balance workloads by assigning unequal numbers of layers across pipeline stages, a strategy aimed at equalizing execution time through a unique pipeline configuration. However, this approach fails to address critical memory constraints and suffers from inherently coarse balancing granularity. In this paper, we propose Heterogeneous Pipeline Parallelism (HPP), a novel approach enabling efficient and fine-grained data balance across heterogeneous pipelines. To address HPP's key challenges, prohibitive search overhead for optimal configurations and high communication overhead from asymmetric All-Reduce, we design the ETH training system. ETH employs a hierarchical workload balance framework that jointly optimizes balance across heterogeneous pipelines and within individual pipeline stages. To mitigate asymmetric communication costs, ETH implements block-wise gradient aggregation. Furthermore, it integrates specialized optimizations that dramatically reduce HPP configuration search overhead. Evaluations demonstrate ETH achieves up to 2x training speedup while reducing configuration generation overhead by up to 56x compared to state-of-the-art systems. The code is available at this https URL.
19 pages, 14 figures. Accepted at USENIX NSDI 2027
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing (cs.DC); Machine Learning (cs.LG)
arXiv:2610.22035 [cs.DC]
(or arXiv:2610.22035v1 [cs.DC] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.22035 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
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Full text under the publisher's open licence · 271 words
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