What is deep learning quantization?

Deep learning quantization is the process of reducing the precision of the numbers used to represent a neural network's parameters, activations, or both. By converting the typically used 32-bit floating-point values to lower bit-width formats such as 16-bit or 8-bit integers, quantization significantly reduces the memory footprint and computational requirements of deep learning models. This technique helps deploy models efficiently on edge devices and mobile hardware while maintaining acceptable accuracy levels. Quantization is widely used in model optimization for faster inference and lower power consumption.