PaddlePaddle divides the description of neural network computation into two stages: compile time and runtime. At compile time, the neural network computation is described as a `ProgramDesc` whereas at runtime an `Executor` interprets the `ProgramDesc` to compute the operations.
PaddlePaddle use proto message to describe compile time program because
PaddlePaddle uses proto message to describe compile time program because :
1. The computation program description must be serializable and saved in a file.
1. During distributed training, the sreialized program will be sent to multiple workers. It should also be possible to break the program into different components, each of which can be executed on different workers.
1. During distributed training, the serialized program will be sent to multiple workers. It should also be possible to break the program into different components, each of which can be executed on a different worker.
The computation `Program` consists of nested `Blocks`. Each `Block` will consist of data(i.e. `Variable`) and `Operations`. The concept to represent them is in the table below.
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@@ -14,28 +14,33 @@ The computation `Program` consists of nested `Blocks`. Each `Block` will consist
|Operation|OpDesc(proto)|Operator(cpp)|
## Definition of VarDesc
## Definition of VarType
A VarDesc should have a name, and value. The are two kinds of variable type in compile time, they are `LoDTensor` and `SelectedRows`.
A VarDesc should have a name, type and whether or not it is persistable. The are different kinds of variable types supported in PaddlePaddle, apart from the POD_Types like: `LOD_TENSOR`, `SELECTED_ROWS`, `FEED_MINIBATCH`, `FETCH_LIST`, `STEP_SCOPES`, `LOD_RANK_TABLE`, `LOD_TENSOR_ARRAY`, `PLACE_LIST`, `READER` and `CHANNEL`. These are declared inside `VarType`. A `VarDesc` then looks as the following:
```proto
messageVarDesc{
requiredstringname=1;
enumVarType{
LOD_TENSOR=0;
SELECTED_ROWS=1;
}
requiredVarTypetype=2;
optionalLoDTensorDesclod_desc=3;
optionalTensorDescselected_rows_desc=4;
optionalboolpersistable=5[default=false];
optionalboolpersistable=3[default=false];
}
```
## Definition of TensorDesc
```proto
enumDataType{
messageTensorDesc{
// Should only be PODType. Is enforced in C++
requiredTypedata_type=1;
repeatedint64dims=2;// [UNK, 640, 480] is saved as [-1, 640, 480]
}
```
The `Type` here comes from the enum defined inside of `VarType` :
```proto
enumType{
// Pod Types
BOOL=0;
INT16=1;
INT32=2;
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@@ -43,11 +48,18 @@ enum DataType {
FP16=4;
FP32=5;
FP64=6;
}
messageTensorDesc{
requiredDataTypedata_type=1;
repeatedint64dims=2;// [UNK, 640, 480] is saved as [-1, 640, 480]
// Other types that may need additional descriptions
LOD_TENSOR=7;
SELECTED_ROWS=8;
FEED_MINIBATCH=9;
FETCH_LIST=10;
STEP_SCOPES=11;
LOD_RANK_TABLE=12;
LOD_TENSOR_ARRAY=13;
PLACE_LIST=14;
READER=15;
CHANNEL=16;
}
```
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@@ -58,7 +70,7 @@ A TensorDesc describes `SelectedRows` and `LoDTensor`. For details of `SelectedR