Build Arm NN custom backend plugins

Build the example plugin

The example backend implements a simple custom plugin to help show how you can write your own custom plugins. The example backend simulates optimizing addition layers by substituting them with a pre-compiled layer. This pre-compiled layer includes a pre-compiled object that represents an optimized alternative to the addition layer in Arm NN. This pre-compiled object is an instance of a CustomPreCompiledObject.

Follow these steps to integrate the example custom plugin with your existing Arm NN build:

1. Download the ArmNNPluginFramework.zip file containing the example plugin to a temporary location, for example /tmp.
2. Extract the contents of the zip file:
   
   

   cd /tmp
   unzip ArmNNPluginFramework.zip

3. Copy the example plugin to the src/backends folder in your Arm NN installation:
   
   

   cp -r /tmp/custom <armnn_install_dir>/armnn/src/backends/

4. Re-run CMake to produce the new makefiles that are needed to build the example plugin:
   
   

   cd <armnn_install_dir>/armnn/build
   cmake .. -DBOOST_ROOT=<boost_lib_dir>

5. Compile using the make command:
   
   

   make -j32

6. Run all the Arm NN unit tests, including those supplied with the example plugin:
   
   

   cd <armnn_install_dir>/armnn/build
   ./UnitTests

   The output should be:

   Running 1204 test cases...
   *** No errors detected