US Patent 11188302 Top value computation on an integrated circuit device

Top-k is a process by which the largest elements among a set of elements is found. In various implementations, a top-k computation can be executed by a neural network accelerator, where the top-k computation is performed using a process that makes use of the accelerators memory array. A set of numerical values on which to perform top-k can be stored in the memory array. The accelerator can locate the maximum value from among the set of numerical values, and can store the maximum value back into the memory array. The accelerator can next remove the maximum value from the set of numerical values, so that a next largest value can be found. To remove the maximum value, the accelerator can write a value representing negative infinity to the memory array at each location of the maximum value.