[API] Accessing new loops created by reuse_at

[zzzDavid]

Currently user doesn't have access to some new loops created by reuse_at. For example, this 2D convolution with line buffer and window buffer:

    A = hcl.placeholder((10, 10))
    r = hcl.reduce_axis(0, 3, name="r")
    c = hcl.reduce_axis(0, 3, name="c")
    B = hcl.compute((8, 8), lambda y, x: hcl.sum(A[y + r, x + c], axis=[r, c]))
    s = hcl.create_schedule([A, B])
    LB = s.reuse_at(A, s[B], B.axis[0])
    WB = s.reuse_at(LB, s[B], B.axis[1])

The v9 loop that shifts the window buffer (see below for generated HLS code) is not directly accessible in B.axis list.

void top(
  int32_t v0[10][10],
  int32_t v1[8][8]
) {     
  int32_t tensor_1_reuse_0[3][10];      // L472
  int32_t tensor_1_reuse_1[3][3];       // L472
  l_tensor_1_y: for (int y = 0; y < 10; y++) {  // L472
    l_x: for (int x = 0; x < 10; x++) { // L472
      int32_t v6 = tensor_1_reuse_0[1][x];      // L472
      tensor_1_reuse_0[0][x] = v6;      // L472
      int32_t v7 = tensor_1_reuse_0[2][x];      // L472
      tensor_1_reuse_0[1][x] = v7;      // L472
      int32_t v8 = v0[y][x];    // L472
      tensor_1_reuse_0[2][x] = v8;      // L472
      if ((y - 2) >= 0) {       // L472
        // THIS LOOP IS NOT DIRECTLY ACCESSIBLE
        for (int v9 = 0; v9 < 3; v9++) {        // L256
          int32_t v10 = tensor_1_reuse_1[v9][1];        // L256
          tensor_1_reuse_1[v9][0] = v10;        // L256
          int32_t v11 = tensor_1_reuse_1[v9][2];        // L256
          tensor_1_reuse_1[v9][1] = v11;        // L256
          int32_t v12 = tensor_1_reuse_0[v9][x];        // L256
          tensor_1_reuse_1[v9][2] = v12;        // L256
        }
        if ((x - 2) >= 0) {     // L256
          int32_t sum;  // L256
          sum = 0;      // L472
          l_r: for (int r = 0; r < 3; r++) {    // L256
            l_c: for (int c = 0; c < 3; c++) {  // L256
              if (1) {  // L472
                int32_t v16 = tensor_1_reuse_1[r][c];   // L6
                int32_t v17 = sum;      // L256
                ap_int<33> v18 = v16;   // L472
                ap_int<33> v19 = v17;   // L472
                ap_int<33> v20 = v18 + v19;     // L6
                int32_t v21 = v20;      // L472
                sum = v21;      // L472
              }
            }
          }
          int32_t v22 = sum;    // L256
          v1[(y - 2)][(x - 2)] = v22;   // L472
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

I think the axis list loop nest representation makes sense for perfectly nested loops but I'm not sure for imperfect loop nests. Loop v9 and loop r are at the same level, nested in loop x.

[chhzh123]

Right, this is a bit tricky. Do we have any use cases that require to access those loops?

[zzzDavid]

I received this feedback from a HeteroCL user, their use case is also convolution:

For example, my original conv layer had 4 outer layers and 4 inner layers of loops. After applying "reuse_at" with a buffer to this conv layer, some new loops have been added. I would like to perform operations like pipeline on these new loops. Now the question is whether there is a way to apply "reuse_at" and access the new loops after these changes.

[zzzDavid]

We can represent such imperfect loop nests as trees, but I'm not sure if we want to do that