How-to run TensorFlow on multiple core and threads
<p>I should start saying that I am completely new to any kind of parallelism/multithreading/multiprocessing programming.</p>

<p>Now, I have the chance to run my TensorFlow CNN on 32 cores (each with 2 hyperthreads). I've spent a lot of time trying to understand how should I modify (if I have to) my code in order to exploit all of that computational power. Unfortuantely, I didn't come to anything. I hoped that TF could do that automatically but when I launch my model and check with <code>top</code> the CPU usage, I see most of the time a 100% CPU usage and a few 200% peaks.</p>

<p>If all the cores were used, I would expect to see a 100*64=6400% usage (correct?). How can I accomplish this? </p>

<p>Should I do something similar to what is explained <a href="https://www.tensorflow.org/versions/r0.10/how_tos/threading_and_queues/index.html" rel="noreferrer">here</a>?</p>

<p>If that is the case, do I understand correctly that all the multithreading is only applied to calculations which involve Queue?</p>

<p>Is this really all that can be done to use all the computational power available (since it appears to me that queue are only used when reading and batching training samples)? </p>

<p>This is what my code looks like, if needed:
(main.py)</p>

<pre><code># pylint: disable=missing-docstring
from __future__ import absolute_import
from __future__ import division
from __future__ import print_function

import time

from six.moves import xrange  # pylint: disable=redefined-builtin
import tensorflow as tf
from pylab import *

import argparse
import cnn
import freader_2

training_feats_file = ["file_name"]
training_lbls_file = ["file_name"]
test_feats_file = 'file_name'
test_lbls_file = 'file_name'
learning_rate = 0.1
testset_size = 1000
batch_size = 1000
testset_size = 793
tot_samples = 810901
max_steps = 3300

def placeholder_inputs(batch_size):

    images_placeholder = tf.placeholder(tf.float32, shape=(testset_size, cnn.IMAGE_HEIGHT, cnn.IMAGE_WIDTH, 1))
    labels_placeholder = tf.placeholder(tf.float32, shape=(testset_size, 15))
    return images_placeholder, labels_placeholder

def reader(images_file, lbls_file, images_pl, labels_pl, im_height, im_width):

    images = loadtxt(images_file)
    labels_feed = loadtxt(lbls_file)
    images_feed = reshape(images, [images.shape[0], im_height, im_width, 1])

    feed_dict = {
        images_pl: images_feed,
        labels_pl: labels_feed,
    }

    return feed_dict

tot_training_loss = []
tot_test_loss = []
tot_grad = []

print('Starting TensorFlow session...')
with tf.Graph().as_default():

    DS = freader_2.XICSDataSet()
    images, labels = DS.trainingset_files_reader(training_feats_file, training_lbls_file)
    keep_prob = tf.placeholder(tf.float32) 
    logits = cnn.inference(images, batch_size, keep_prob)
    loss = cnn.loss(logits, labels)
    global_step = tf.Variable(0, trainable=False)
    train_op, grad_norm = cnn.training(loss, learning_rate, global_step)
    summary_op = tf.merge_all_summaries()   

    test_images_pl, test_labels_pl = placeholder_inputs(testset_size)
    test_pred = cnn.inference(test_images_pl, testset_size, keep_prob, True)
    test_loss = cnn.loss(test_pred, test_labels_pl)

    saver = tf.train.Saver()
    sess = tf.Session()
    summary_writer = tf.train.SummaryWriter("CNN", sess.graph)

    init = tf.initialize_all_variables()
    sess.run(init)
    tf.train.start_queue_runners(sess=sess)
    test_feed = reader(test_feats_file, test_lbls_file, test_images_pl, test_labels_pl, DS.height, DS.width)
    test_feed[keep_prob] = 1.    

    # Start the training loop.
    print('Starting training loop...')
    start_time = time.time()
    for step in xrange(max_steps):

        _, grad, loss_value= sess.run([train_op, grad_norm, loss], feed_dict = {keep_prob:0.5})  
        tot_training_loss.append(loss_value)
        tot_grad.append(grad)

        _, test_loss_val = sess.run([test_pred, test_loss], feed_dict=test_feed)
        tot_test_loss.append(test_loss_val)

        if step % 1 == 0:        
            duration = time.time() - start_time
            print('Step %d (%.3f sec):\n training loss = %f\n test loss = %f ' % (step, duration, loss_value, test_loss_val))
            print(' gradient = %f'%grad)
#            summary_str = sess.run(summary_op)#, feed_dict=feed_dict)
#            summary_writer.add_summary(summary_str, step)
#            summary_writer.flush()

        if (step+1) % 100 == 0:
            print('Saving checkpoint...')
            saver.save(sess, "chkpts/medias-res", global_step = global_step)

        if test_loss_val &lt; 0.01:# or grad &lt; 0.01:
            print("Stopping condition reached.")
            break

    print('Saving final network...')
    saver.save(sess, "chkpts/final.chkpt")
    print('Total training time: ' + str((time.time() - start_time)/3600) + ' h')
</code></pre>

<p>cnn.py:</p>

<pre><code>from __future__ import absolute_import
from __future__ import division
from __future__ import print_function

import math

import tensorflow as tf

NUM_OUTPUT = 15

IMAGE_WIDTH = 195
IMAGE_HEIGHT = 20
IMAGE_PIXELS = IMAGE_WIDTH * IMAGE_HEIGHT

def inference(images, num_samples, keep_prob, reuse=None):

    with tf.variable_scope('conv1', reuse=reuse):
        kernel = tf.get_variable(name='weights', shape=[3, 30, 1, 5], initializer=tf.contrib.layers.xavier_initializer(uniform=False))        
        weight_decay = tf.mul(tf.nn.l2_loss(kernel), 0.001, name='weight_loss')
        tf.add_to_collection('losses', weight_decay)
        conv = tf.nn.conv2d(images, kernel, [1, 1, 5, 1], padding='VALID')
        # output dim: 18x34
        biases = tf.Variable(tf.constant(0.0, name='biases', shape=[5]))
        bias = tf.nn.bias_add(conv, biases)
        conv1 = tf.nn.relu(bias, name='conv1')

    pool1 = tf.nn.max_pool(conv1, ksize=[1, 2, 2, 1], strides=[1, 2, 2, 1], padding='VALID', name='pool1')    
    #output dim: 9x17

    with tf.variable_scope('conv2', reuse=reuse):
        kernel = tf.get_variable(name='weights', shape=[2, 2, 5, 5], initializer=tf.contrib.layers.xavier_initializer(uniform=False))
        weight_decay = tf.mul(tf.nn.l2_loss(kernel), 0.001, name='weight_loss')
        tf.add_to_collection('losses', weight_decay)
        conv = tf.nn.conv2d(pool1, kernel, [1, 1, 1, 1], padding='VALID')
        #output dim: 8x16
        biases = tf.Variable(tf.constant(0.1, name='biases', shape=[5]))
        bias = tf.nn.bias_add(conv, biases)
        conv2 = tf.nn.relu(bias, name='conv2')


    pool2 = tf.nn.max_pool(conv2, ksize=[1, 2, 2, 1], strides=[1, 2, 2, 1], padding='VALID', name='pool2')
    #output dim: 4x8

    h_fc1_drop = tf.nn.dropout(pool2, keep_prob)

    with tf.variable_scope('fully_connected', reuse=reuse):
        reshape = tf.reshape(h_fc1_drop, [num_samples, -1])
        dim = reshape.get_shape()[1].value
        weights = tf.get_variable(name='weights', shape=[dim, 20], initializer=tf.contrib.layers.xavier_initializer(uniform=False))
        weight_decay = tf.mul(tf.nn.l2_loss(weights), 0.004, name='weight_loss')
        tf.add_to_collection('losses', weight_decay)
        biases = tf.Variable(tf.zeros([20], name='biases'))
        fully_connected = tf.nn.relu(tf.matmul(reshape, weights) + biases, name='fully_connected')

    with tf.variable_scope('identity', reuse=reuse):
        weights = tf.get_variable(name='weights', shape=[20,NUM_OUTPUT], initializer=tf.contrib.layers.xavier_initializer(uniform=False))
        weight_decay = tf.mul(tf.nn.l2_loss(weights), 0.004, name='weight_loss')
        tf.add_to_collection('losses', weight_decay)
        biases = tf.Variable(tf.zeros([NUM_OUTPUT], name='biases'))
        output = tf.matmul(fully_connected, weights) + biases

    return output


def loss(outputs, labels):

    rmse = tf.sqrt(tf.reduce_mean(tf.square(tf.sub(labels, outputs))), name="rmse")
    loss_list = tf.get_collection('losses')
    loss_list.append(rmse)
    rmse_tot = tf.add_n(loss_list, name='total_loss')  
    return rmse_tot


def training(loss, starter_learning_rate, global_step):

      tf.scalar_summary(loss.op.name, loss)
#      optimizer = tf.train.AdamOptimizer()
      learning_rate = tf.train.exponential_decay(starter_learning_rate, global_step, 200, 0.8, staircase=True)
      optimizer = tf.train.MomentumOptimizer(learning_rate, 0.8)
      grads_and_vars = optimizer.compute_gradients(loss)
      grad_norms = [tf.nn.l2_loss(g[0]) for g in grads_and_vars]      
      grad_norm = tf.add_n(grad_norms)
      train_op = optimizer.apply_gradients(grads_and_vars, global_step=global_step)
#      train_op = optimizer.minimize(loss, global_step=global_step)
      return train_op, grad_norm
</code></pre>

<p>freader_2.py:</p>

<pre><code># -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from __future__ import absolute_import
from __future__ import division
from __future__ import print_function

import os 
import collections
import numpy as np

from six.moves import xrange  
import tensorflow as tf

class XICSDataSet:    
    def __init__(self, height=20, width=195, batch_size=1000, noutput=15):
        self.depth = 1
        self.height = height
        self.width = width
        self.batch_size = batch_size
        self.noutput = noutput

    def trainingset_files_reader(self, im_file_name, lb_file_name, nfiles=1):

        im_filename_queue = tf.train.string_input_producer(im_file_name, shuffle=False)
        lb_filename_queue = tf.train.string_input_producer(lb_file_name, shuffle=False)

        imreader = tf.TextLineReader()
        lbreader = tf.TextLineReader()
        imkey, imvalue = imreader.read(im_filename_queue)
        lbkey, lbvalue = lbreader.read(lb_filename_queue)
        im_record_defaults = [[.0]]*self.height*self.width
        lb_record_defaults = [[.0]]*self.noutput
        im_data_tuple = tf.decode_csv(imvalue, record_defaults=im_record_defaults, field_delim = ' ')
        lb_data_tuple = tf.decode_csv(lbvalue, record_defaults=lb_record_defaults, field_delim = ' ')
        features = tf.pack(im_data_tuple)
        label = tf.pack(lb_data_tuple)

        depth_major = tf.reshape(features, [self.height, self.width, self.depth])

        min_after_dequeue = 10
        capacity = min_after_dequeue + 3 * self.batch_size
        example_batch, label_batch = tf.train.shuffle_batch([depth_major, label], batch_size=self.batch_size, capacity=capacity,
                                                            min_after_dequeue=min_after_dequeue)

        return example_batch, label_batch
</code></pre>