AccelES: Accelerating Top-K SpMV for Embedding Similarity via Low-bit Pruning

In the realm of recommendation systems, achieving real-time performance in embedding similarity tasks is often hindered by the limitations of traditional Top-K sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SpMV) methods, which suffer from high latency due to inefficient memory access patterns. This paper identifies these critical gaps and introduces AccelES, a novel approach that significantly enhances the efficiency of Top-K SpMV. Our method employs a two-stage calculation scheme: the first stage utilizes a compact, low-bit dataset to quickly identify the most relevant entries, while the second stage performs full-precision calculations solely on this pruned subset, thereby minimizing computational overhead. Furthermore, AccelES incorporates innovative matrix representations, Ultra-CSR and Random-CSR, which optimize memory bandwidth utilization. Experimental results demonstrate that AccelES accelerates performance, surpassing state-of-the-art FPGA, GPU, and CPU solutions by factors of 3.4×, 2.5×, and 153.3×, respectively, under controlled conditions. These advancements not only enhance processing speed but also significantly improve real-time performance in recommendation systems, establishing AccelES as a pivotal contribution to the field of Top-K sparse matrix-vector multiplication.