ngraph-tensorflow-bridge 0.8.0

Intel nGraph compiler and runtime for TensorFlow

Intel(R) nGraph(TM) Compiler and runtime for TensorFlow*

This repository contains the code needed to enable Intel(R) nGraph(TM) Compiler and runtime engine for TensorFlow. Use it to speed up your TensorFlow training and inference workloads. The nGraph Library and runtime suite can also be used to customize and deploy Deep Learning inference models that will "just work" with a variety of nGraph-enabled backends: CPU, GPU, and custom silicon like the Intel(R) Nervana(TM) NNP.

• Build with Linux
• Build using OS X
• Using the upstreamed version
• Debugging
• Support
• How to Contribute

Linux instructions

Option 1: Use a pre-built nGraph-TensorFlow bridge

1. You need to instantiate a specific kind of virtualenv to be able to proceed with the ngraph-tf bridge installation. For systems with Python 3.n or Python 2.7, these commands are

    virtualenv --system-site-packages -p python3 your_virtualenv 
    virtualenv --system-site-packages -p /usr/bin/python2 your_virtualenv  
    source your_virtualenv/bin/activate # bash, sh, ksh, or zsh
   

2. Install TensorFlow v1.12.0:

    pip install -U tensorflow
   

3. Install nGraph-TensorFlow bridge:

    pip install -U ngraph-tensorflow-bridge
   

4. Test the installation by running the following command:

    python -c "import tensorflow as tf; print('TensorFlow version: r',tf.__version__);import ngraph_bridge; print(ngraph_bridge.__version__)"
   

This will produce something like this:

    TensorFlow version: r 1.12.0
    TensorFlow version installed: 1.12.0 (v1.12.0-0-ga6d8ffae09)
    nGraph bridge built with: 1.12.0 (v1.12.0-0-ga6d8ffae09)
    b'0.8.0'

Next you can try out the TensorFlow models by adding one line to your existing TensorFlow model scripts and running them the usual way:

    import ngraph_bridge

Option 2: Build nGraph bridge from source using TensorFlow source

To run unit tests, or if you are planning to contribute, install the nGraph bridge using the TensorFlow source tree as follows:

Prepare the build environment

The installation prerequisites are the same as described in the TensorFlow prepare environment for linux.

1. We use the standard build process which is a system called "bazel". These instructions were tested with bazel version 0.16.0.

    wget https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/releases/download/0.16.0/bazel-0.16.0-installer-linux-x86_64.sh      
    chmod +x bazel-0.16.0-installer-linux-x86_64.sh
    ./bazel-0.16.0-installer-linux-x86_64.sh --user
   

2. Add and source the bin path to your ~/.bashrc file in order to be able to call bazel from the user's installation we set up:

    export PATH=$PATH:~/bin
    source ~/.bashrc   
   

Installation

1. Once TensorFlow's dependencies are installed, clone ngraph-tf repo:

    git clone https://github.com/NervanaSystems/ngraph-tf.git
    cd ngraph-tf
    git checkout v0.8.0
   

2. Next run the following Python script to build TensorFlow, nGraph and the bridge:

    python3 build_ngtf.py
   

At the end of the build a new virtualenv directory is created in the build/venv-tf-py3.

3. Activate this virtual environment to start using nGraph with TensorFlow.

    source build/venv-tf-py3/bin/activate
   

4. Test the installation by running the following command:

    python -c "import tensorflow as tf; print('TensorFlow version: r',tf.__version__);import ngraph_bridge; print(ngraph_bridge.__version__)"
   

Once the build and installation steps are complete, you can start using TensorFlow with nGraph backends.

Please add the following line to enable nGraph: import ngraph_bridge

Option 3: Using the upstreamed version

nGraph is updated in the TensorFlow source tree using pull requests from time to time.

In order to build that version of nGraph, follow the below steps, which involves building TensorFlow from source with certain settings.

1. Install bazel.

    wget https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/releases/download/0.16.0/bazel-0.16.0-installer-linux-x86_64.sh      
    chmod +x bazel-0.16.0-installer-linux-x86_64.sh
    ./bazel-0.16.0-installer-linux-x86_64.sh --user
   

Add and source the bin path to your ~/.bashrc file in order to be able to call bazel from the user's installation we set up:

    export PATH=$PATH:~/bin
    source ~/.bashrc   

2. Create a virtual environment. For systems with Python 3.n or Python 2.7, these commands are

    virtualenv --system-site-packages -p python3 your_virtualenv 
    virtualenv --system-site-packages -p /usr/bin/python2 your_virtualenv  
    source your_virtualenv/bin/activate # bash, sh, ksh, or zsh
   

3. Get tensorflow v1.12.0

    git clone https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow.git
    cd tensorflow
    git checkout v1.12.0
   

4. Now run ./configure and choose no for the following when prompted to build TensorFlow.

   XLA support:

    Do you wish to build TensorFlow with XLA JIT support? [Y/n]: n
    No XLA JIT support will be enabled for TensorFlow.
   

   CUDA support:

    Do you wish to build TensorFlow with CUDA support? [y/N]: N
    No CUDA support will be enabled for TensorFlow.
   

   Note that if you are running TensorFlow on a Skylake family processor then select -march=broadwell when prompted to specify the optimization flags:

    Please specify optimization flags to use during compilation 
    when bazel option "--config=opt" is specified 
    [Default is -march=native]: -march=broadwell
   

   This is due to an issue in TensorFlow tracked in this issue: https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/issues/17273

5. Prepare the pip package

    bazel build --config=opt --config=ngraph //tensorflow/tools/pip_package:build_pip_package 
    bazel-bin/tensorflow/tools/pip_package/build_pip_package ./
   

6. Once the pip package is built, install using

    pip install -U ./tensorflow-1.*whl
   

For this final option, there is no need to separately build ngraph-tf or to use pip to install the nGraph module. With this configuration, your TensorFlow model scripts will work without any changes, ie, you do not need to add import ngraph_bridge, like option 1 and 2.

Note: The version that is available in the upstreamed version of TensorFlow usually lags the features and bug fixes available in the master branch of this repository.

Running tests

To run the C++ unit tests you need to choose option 2 method to build.

Go to the build directory and run the following commands:

    cd test
    ./gtest_ngtf

You can run a few of your own DL models to validate the end-to-end functionality. Also, you can use the ngraph-tf/examples directory and try to run the following model:

    cd examples
    python3 keras_sample.py 

Using OS X

The build and installation instructions are idential for Ubuntu 16.04 and OS X.

Running tests

Export the appropriate paths to your build location; OS X uses the DYLD_ prefix:

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/bazel-out/darwin-py3-opt/bin/tensorflow:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/build/ngraph/ngraph_dist/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH

Then follow "Running tests" on Linux as described above.

Debugging

See the instructions provided in the diagnostics directory.

https://github.com/NervanaSystems/ngraph-tf/blob/master/diagnostics/README.md

Support

Please submit your questions, feature requests and bug reports via GitHub issues.

How to Contribute

We welcome community contributions to nGraph. If you have an idea for how to improve it:

• Share your proposal via GitHub issues.
• Ensure you can build the product and run all the examples with your patch.
• In the case of a larger feature, create a test.
• Submit a pull request.
• We will review your contribution and, if any additional fixes or modifications are necessary, may provide feedback to guide you. When accepted, your pull request will be merged to the repository.

About Intel(R) nGraph(TM)

See the full documentation here: http://ngraph.nervanasys.com/docs/latest

Future plans