# TensorFlow¶

In ngraph, we aim to provide utilities that enable frontend interoperability with other frameworks such as TensorFlow. The TensorFlow importer allows users to define a limited set models in TensorFlow and then execute computations using ngraph transformers.

## Minimal Example¶

Here’s a minimal example for the TensorFlow importer.

from __future__ import print_function
from ngraph.frontends.TensorFlow.tf_importer.importer import TFImporter
import ngraph.transformers as ngt
import TensorFlow as tf
import ngraph as ng

# TensorFlow ops
x = tf.constant(1.)
y = tf.constant(2.)
f = x + y

# import
importer = TFImporter()
importer.parse_graph_def(tf.Session().graph_def)

# get handle
f_ng = importer.get_op_handle(f)

# execute
transformer = ngt.make_transformer()
f_result = transformer.computation(f_ng)()
print(f_result)


## Walk-through of MNIST MLP Example¶

Here’s a walk-through of the MNIST MLP example. For full source code of the example, please see the examples directory.

1. Define MNIST MLP model in TensorFlow

x = tf.placeholder(tf.float32, [args.batch_size, 784])
t = tf.placeholder(tf.float32, [args.batch_size, 10])
w = tf.Variable(tf.zeros([784, 10]))
b = tf.Variable(tf.zeros([10]))
y = tf.matmul(x, w) + b
cost = tf.reduce_mean(-tf.reduce_sum(
t * tf.log(tf.nn.softmax(y)), reduction_indices=[1]))
init = tf.initialize_all_variables()


In the example, we need to explicitly set init to tf.initialize_all_variables() since we need to use the handle of the init op for ngraph to execute the correct initialization.

2. Import TensorFlow GraphDef

importer = TFImporter()
importer.parse_graph_def(tf.Session().graph_def)

• We use the TFImporter.parse_graph_def() function to import from TensorFlow sessions’s graph_def.
• The importer also support importing from a graph_def protobuf file using TFImporter.parse_protobuf(). For example, a graph_def file can be dumped by tf.train.SummaryWriter().

3. Get handles of corresponding ngraph ops

x_ng, t_ng, cost_ng, init_op_ng = importer.get_op_handle([x, t, cost, init])


TensorFlow nodes are converted to ngraph ops. In order to evaluate a TensorFlow node, we need to get its corresponding ngraph node using TFImporter.get_op_handle().

4. Perform autodiff and define computations

updates = SGDOptimizer(args.lrate).minimize(cost_ng)
transformer = ngt.make_transformer()
train_comp = transformer.computation([cost_ng, updates], x_ng, t_ng)
init_comp = transformer.computation(init_op_ng)
transformer.initialize()


As we only import the forward graph from TensorFlow, we should use ngraph’s autodiff to compute gradients and get optimizers.

5. Training using ngraph

mnist = input_data.read_data_sets(args.data_dir, one_hot=True)
init_comp()
for idx in range(args.max_iter):
batch_xs, batch_ys = mnist.train.next_batch(args.batch_size)
cost_val, _ = train_comp(batch_xs, batch_ys)
print("[Iter %s] Cost = %s" % (idx, cost_val))


Now we can train the model in ngraph as if it were a native ngraph model. All ngraph functionalities and syntax can be applied after the graph is imported.

6. Training using TensorFlow as comparison

with tf.Session() as sess:
# train in tensorflow
sess.run(init)

for idx in range(args.max_iter):
batch_xs, batch_ys = mnist.train.next_batch(args.batch_size)
cost_val, _ = sess.run([cost, train_step],
feed_dict={x: batch_xs, t: batch_ys})
print("[Iter %s] Cost = %s" % (idx, cost_val))


Finally, we train the model using standard TensorFlow. The ngraph results above match TensorFlow’s results.

## Current Limitations¶

1. Only a subset of operations are supported.
• Currently we only support a subset of operations from TensorFlow that are related to neural networks. We are working on getting more ops supported in the importer.
• A util function TFImporter._get_unimplemented_ops() is provided for getting a list of unimplemented ops from a particular model.
1. The importer should be used to import the forward graph.
• User should use the importer to import the forward pass of the TensorFlow graph, and then perform autodiff and training updates in ngraph.
• TensorFlow ops related to gradient computation are not supported.
• In the future, bidirectional weight exchange between TensorFlow and ngraph will also be supported.
1. Static-ness
• In ngraph, the transformer may alter the computation graph during the transformation phase, thus we need to declare all computations before executing any of them. Altering the imported graph after transformer initialization is not supported.
• TensorFlow allows dynamic parameters to its ops. For example, the kernel size of a Conv2d can be the result of another computation. Since ngraph needs to know dimension information prior to execution to allocate memory, dynamic parameters are not supported in importer.