SkipOPU: An FPGA-based Overlay Processor for Large Language Models with Dynamically Allocated Computation

TL;DR

SkipOPU is an FPGA-based overlay processor that enables dynamic computation allocation for large language models, significantly improving inference efficiency and reducing storage overhead by exploiting token and layer variability.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible FPGA overlay architecture supporting dynamic inference patterns, including a novel reduction decoupling, hybrid precision support, and on-chip KV buffer for efficient LLM inference.

Findings

Outperforms GPU and FPGA accelerators by 1.23x-3.83x in bandwidth efficiency.

Reduces KV storage overhead by up to 25.4%.

Supports dynamic computation allocation with high flexibility.

Abstract

Large language models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable performance across a wide range of tasks, but their inference efficiency remains a critical bottleneck due to rapidly growing parameters. Recent advances in dynamic computation allocation address this challenge by exploiting the highly uneven contributions of different tokens and layers, enabling selective execution that significantly reduces redundant computation while preserving model accuracy. However, existing hardware platforms and accelerators are primarily optimized for uniform, static execution, limiting their ability to efficiently support such dynamic inference patterns. In this work, we propose SkipOPU, an FPGA-based overlay processor that dynamically allocates computation across tokens and layers with high flexibility through a lightweight routing mechanism. First, we decouple reduction operations from element-wise computation in nonlinear modules and perform reductions incrementally, which enables both stages to be fused with adjacent linear operations (router or matrix multiplication) for effective latency hiding. Second, motivated by asymmetric sensitivity to numerical precision between activation and weight, we design a PE array that efficiently supports float-fixed hybrid execution. A novel DSP overpacking technique is introduced to maximize hardware utilization while minimizing resource overhead. Finally, we develop a proactive on-chip KV history buffer that exploits cross-layer KV invariance of pruned tokens, eliminating irregular HBM accesses during decoding and supplementing off-chip bandwidth through high-locality on-chip reuse. Experimental results demonstrate that SkipOPU on an AMD U280 FPGA outperforms GPU and other FPGA-based accelerators by 1.23x-3.83x in bandwidth efficiency for LLMs inference with dynamic computation allocation and can reduce up to 25.4% KV storage overhead across varying sequence lengths.