AI Engine API Overview - 2024.1 English

The AI Engine API is a portable programming interface for AI Engine accelerators. The AI Engine API User Guide (UG1529) indicates if the API is supported only on a specific architecture. The API are implemented as a C++ header-only library that provides types and operations that get translated into efficient low-level intrinsics. The API also provides higher-level abstractions such as iterators.

Usually, two header files are needed in kernel source code:

aie_api/aie.hpp

AI Engine main entry point.

aie_api/aie_adf.hpp

Graph buffer and stream interfaces.

AI Engine API provides a helper file to print aie::vector and aie::mask values in simulation when profiling is enabled:

• aie_api/utils.hpp: aie::print and aie::print_matrix functions are provided.

To support operator overloading on some operations, include header file aie_api/operators.hpp and use namespace aie::operators. For additional information, see Operator Overloading.

A typical example of using the API for an AI Engine kernel is as follows.

#include <aie_api/aie.hpp>
#include <aie_api/aie_adf.hpp>
#include <aie_api/utils.hpp>
using namespace adf;
void vec_incr(input_buffer<int32>& data, output_buffer<int32>& out) { 

  //set all elements to 1 
  aie::vector<int32,16> vec1=aie::broadcast(1);

  auto inIter=aie::begin_vector<16>(data);
  auto outIter=aie::begin_vector<16>(out);

  for(int i=0;i<16;i++) chess_prepare_for_pipelining { 
    aie::vector<int32,16> vdata=*inIter++;

    //print vector in a line
    aie::print(vdata,true,"vdata="); 

    //print vdata as a 2x8 matrix
    aie::print_matrix(vdata,8,"vdata matrix=");

    //increment each element in vdata by 1
    aie::vector<int32,16> vresult=aie::add(vdata,vec1);

    *outIter++=vresult;
  }
}

vdata=0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 
vdata matrix=0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
             8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 
vdata=16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
vdata matrix=16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 
             24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
vdata=32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 
vdata matrix=32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 
             40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 
vdata=48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 
vdata matrix=48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 
             56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 
vdata=64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 
vdata matrix=64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 
             72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 

...

vdata=208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 
vdata matrix=208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 
             216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 
vdata=224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 
vdata matrix=224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 
             232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 
vdata=240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 
vdata matrix=240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 
             248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 

Vector data type and operations are covered in following sections.