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Build Larq Compute Engine

The Larq Compute Engine (LCE) repository consists of two main components:

  • LCE Runtime: which is a collection of highly optimized TensorFlow Lite custom operators.

  • LCE Converter: which takes a Larq model and generates a TensorFlow Lite FlatBuffer file (.tflite) compatible with LCE runtime.

Before proceeding with building LCE components, you need to setup the LCE build enviroment first.

Setup the build environment

1. Setup Docker container

We build the Larq Compute Engine (LCE) components inside a docker container. We also recommend to use docker volumes to migrate the build targets in-between the host machine and the container.

To be able to build the LCE runtime and the LCE converter's manylinux2010 compatible PIP package, we need to use the tensorflow:custom-op-ubuntu16 image.

First, download the docker image:

docker pull tensorflow/tensorflow:custom-op-ubuntu16

Clone the LCE repository in the host machine:

mkdir lce-volume
git clone https://github.com/larq/compute-engine.git lce-volume

To start the container and map the lce-volume directory to the /tmp/lce-volume directory inside the container:

docker run -it -v $PWD/lce-volume:/tmp/lce-volume \
    -w /tmp/lce-volume tensorflow/tensorflow:custom-op-ubuntu16 /bin/bash

Now, you will be able to build your targets inside the container and access the build artifacts directly from the host machine.

2. Install Bazelisk

Bazel is the primary build system for LCE. However, to avoid Bazel compatibility issues, you need to use Bazelisk as a launcher for Bazel. To install Bazelisk on Linux, run the following two commands (replace v1.2.1 with your preferred bazelisk version):

sudo wget -O /usr/local/bin/bazel \
    https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazelisk/releases/download/v1.2.1/bazelisk-linux-amd64
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/bazel

3. Configure Bazel

Run the ./configure.sh script in the LCE root directory and answer "Yes" to the manylinux2010 question if you want to build the LCE converter's PIP package inside the tensorflow:custom-op-ubuntu16 container. This script generates the Bazel configuration file .bazelrc in the LCE root directory.

Build LCE Runtime

LCE runtime has a diverse platform support, covering Android and ARM-based boards such as Raspberry Pi. To build/install/run LCE runtime on each of these platforms, please refer to the corresponding guide.

Build LCE Converter

The LCE converter is available on PyPI and can be installed with Python's pip package manager:

pip install larq-compute-engine

You can also run the following commands, to build the LCE pip package yourself:

bazel build :build_pip_pkg
bazel-bin/build_pip_pkg artifacts

The script stores the wheel file in the artifacts/ directory located in the LCE root directory. To install the PIP package:

pip install artifacts/*.whl