Creating Custom Operations for the IPU

This technical note provides an overview of the steps for implementing a custom op in each of the frameworks available in the Poplar SDK, with references to sources of more information. Note that the main functionality of a custom op normally needs be written in C++ using the Poplar graph programming framework.

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Creating a custom op in PyTorch
  • 2.1. Implementing the custom op
  • 2.2. Make the op available in PyTorch
• 3. Creating a custom op in TensorFlow
  • 3.1. A custom op that executes on the IPU
  • 3.2. A custom op that executes on the host CPU
• 4. Creating a custom op in PopART
  • 4.1. Implementing the custom op in PopART
  • 4.2. Make the op available in PopART
• 5. Creating a custom op in PopXL
  • 5.1. Setting up the environment
  • 5.2. Implementing the custom op in C++
  • 5.3. Make the op available in PopXL
• 6. Examples
• 7. Trademarks & copyright