Scorch: A Library for Sparse Deep Learning

TL;DR

Scorch is a new library that integrates efficient sparse tensor computation into PyTorch, enabling faster inference and complex sparse operations, thus facilitating the development of large-scale sparse deep learning models.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible sparse tensor interface, an automated compiler stack, and demonstrates significant speedups over existing PyTorch sparse operations.

Findings

Achieves 1.05-5.78x speedups on end-to-end tasks.

Supports diverse sparse data structures and complex operations.

Seamlessly integrates with PyTorch for easier adoption.

Abstract

The rapid growth in the size of deep learning models strains the capabilities of traditional dense computation paradigms. Leveraging sparse computation has become increasingly popular for training and deploying large-scale models, but existing deep learning frameworks lack extensive support for sparse operations. To bridge this gap, we introduce Scorch, a library that seamlessly integrates efficient sparse tensor computation into the PyTorch ecosystem, with an initial focus on inference workloads on CPUs. Scorch provides a flexible and intuitive interface for sparse tensors, supporting diverse sparse data structures. Scorch introduces a compiler stack that automates key optimizations, including automatic loop ordering, tiling, and format inference. Combined with a runtime that adapts its execution to both dense and sparse data, Scorch delivers substantial speedups over hand-written PyTorch Sparse (torch.sparse) operations without sacrificing usability. More importantly, Scorch enables efficient computation of complex sparse operations that lack hand-optimized PyTorch implementations. This flexibility is crucial for exploring novel sparse architectures. We demonstrate Scorch's ease of use and performance gains on diverse deep learning models across multiple domains. With only minimal code changes, Scorch achieves 1.05-5.78x speedups over PyTorch Sparse on end-to-end tasks. Scorch's seamless integration and performance gains make it a valuable addition to the PyTorch ecosystem. We believe Scorch will enable wider exploration of sparsity as a tool for scaling deep learning and inform the development of other sparse libraries.