# Adding New Ops¶

## Overview¶

To add a new op in Intel® Nervana™ graph (ngraph), you’ll need to do the following:

• Register the new op in op_graph.
• Add adjoint function for computing gradients of the op (optional).
• Register op in transformer passes.
• Add implementation in transformers (such as CPU and GPU).
• Add corresponding tests.

## Example¶

In the following example, we’ll walk though the steps for adding the Prod op. Prod computes the product of a tensor over given reduction axes. For instance:

import ngraph as ng
axes = ng.make_axes([ng.make_axis(2), ng.make_axis(2)])
x = ng.constant([[1., 2.], [3., 4.]], axes=axes)
x_prod = ng.prod(x, reduction_axes=x.axes[1])
print(ng.transformers.make_transformer().computation(x_prod)())
# output:
# [  2.  12.]

1. First, we need to register the new op in op_graph. In general, an op is a sub-class of ngraph.op_graph.op_graph.Op. To add a new op, we could inherit from the class Op or one of its descendant classes and implement required methods. We need to implement __init__(), and if we want to define the derivative of the op, we need to implement generate_adjoints(). For other advanced functionalities, please refer to the the source of ngraph.op_graph.op_graph.Op.

Let’s look at DotOp for an example. DotOp inherits TensorOp which is a descendant of Op. In the __init__() function, we do input arguments checking and set up the output axes in DotOp.axes.:

class DotOp(TensorOp):

def __init__(self, x, y, **kwargs):
self.reduction_axes = x.axes & y.axes
self.x_out_axes = x.axes - self.reduction_axes
self.y_out_axes = y.axes - self.reduction_axes
self.bias = bias

axes = self.x_out_axes + self.y_out_axes

super(DotOp, self).__init__(
args=(x, y), axes=axes, **kwargs
)

...

2. Next, we could optionally add an adjoint function for computing gradients of the op in the generate_adjoints() function. There are two scenarios:

a. If the gradients of the op can be represented by other ops available in ngraph, we could use those ops to implement the gradients. b. If that is not possible, or if we want to optimize the performance of the gradient computation, we could add new ops specifically for computing gradient.

The generate_adjoints() function takes several arguments:

• adjoints: A dictionary that stores adjoints for the derivative being computed. The dictionary key is the op, and the value is the derivative of the op. adjoints needs to be accumulated by the generate_add_delta() function.
• delta: The back-propagated gradient from the downstream of the graph.
• input_op_0: The input operand to the op.
• input_op_1, ...: Other input operands to the op.
• generate_adjoints() Takes variable-length inputs.

Inside generate_adjoints() for each input op, we accumulate its gradients by calling input_op.generate_add_delta(adjoints, gradient_by_current_op).

For more details on how autodiff works in Intel Nervana graph, refer to the autodiff documentation.

In this example, we could represent the gradients of the Prod by other Intel Nervana graph ops, such as equal, sum, prod and broadcast. Also, since we are using the create_reduction_op helper function, we define a prod_adjoints() function externally and pass it to the helper function. The helper function then applies it to the generate_adjoints() in the generated Prod class.

In ngraph/op_graph/op_graph.py, we add

def prod_adjoints(self, adjoints, delta, x):
# axes
axes = x.axes
reduction_axes = self.reduction_axes

# x_equal_zero
x_equal_zero = equal(x, 0)

# count 0's occurrence by reduction axes
x_zero_count = sum(x_equal_zero, reduction_axes=reduction_axes)

# create mask for zero count 0 and 1

# replace all 0 to 1
x_replaced = equal(x, 0.) * 1. + (1. - equal(x, 0.)) * x

# do product of x_replace and gradient
x_replaced_prod = prod(x_replaced, reduction_axes=reduction_axes)
x_replaced_grad = x_replaced_prod / x_replaced

# multiply mask with mask for the two cases

)


Going back to the DotOp: In its generate_adjoints function, we accumulate the gradients for the LHS operand x and RHS operand y respectively:

class DotOp(TensorOp):
...

axes_with_order(dot(delta, y), x.axes)
)
axes_with_order(dot(x, delta), y.axes)
)

3. The next step is to register the op in transformer passes. Transformer passes are used to simplify graph, to optimize ops for execution, and to meet device-specific constraints. Some optimization passes are optional, while other passes could be required to ensure correctness. The two default passes we currently have are SimplePrune and CPUTensorShaping. Refer to the transformer passes doc for more details.

For Prod, one of the optimizations we can do is that, if the tensor is filled with a constant value, we can replace Prod with the Power op. Therefore, in ngraph/transformers/passes/passes.py, we add

class SimplePrune(PeepholeGraphPass):
...

@visit.on_type(Prod)
def visit(self, op, x):
"""
If x is filled with the same value, then replace the prod op
with power.
"""
if x.is_scalar and x.is_constant:
val = power(x.const, op.reduction_axes.size)
self.replace_op(op, constant(val))

4. Next, we need to add implementations of the op in transformers. Note that in the previous steps, we still haven’t specified how the op will be executed (forward computation). In the current version of Intel Nervana graph, the ops that are implemented in CPUTransformer and GPUTransformer are done by code generation for optimized performance.

In ngraph/transformers/cputransform.py, add the following for CPU code generation

class CPUCodeGenerator(PyGen):
...

@generate_op.on_type(Prod)
def generate_op(self, op, out, x):
self.append("np.prod({}, axis=0, out={})", x, out)


In ngraph/transformers/gputransform.py, add the following in the ElementWiseKernel class for the element-wise CUDA C kernel. Here, ops are first buffered in a list, and then the kernel is compiled at the end.

class ElementWiseKernel(GPUKernel):
...

def add_op(self, op, out, x):
self.add_reduction_op("prod", op, out, x)


Finally in /ngraph/transformers/gpu/float_ew2.py add the following for the reduction op generation template. These are string templates for the generated CUDA C code.

_redop_templates = {
"prod": r"%(out)s = %(out)s * %(x)s;",
...
}

_redop32_templates = {
"prod": r"%(out)s = %(out)s * __shfl_xor(%(out)s, i);",
...
}

_redop_inits = {
"prod": "1.0f",
...
}

5. The last step is to add the corresponding tests to verify the forward and backward computation. For ng.prod, refer to the test_prod_constant() and test_prod_deriv test functions under tests/test_execution.py.