Profiling TorchNeuron (Part 1): System-level profiling on AWS Trainium.

Many ML practitioners have some intuition about how to make models run fast, but fewer know how to analyze why a model is slow. In Part 1 of this series, you will learn how to systematically analyze inference performance and identify where the time is spent.

This post starts from scratch and assumes no prior profiling experience. The walkthrough uses AWS Trainium, a purpose-built AI chip for deep learning training and inference workloads, and TorchNeuron, its open source native PyTorch backend. TorchNeuron supports standard PyTorch workflows on Trainium, including eager execution, torch.compile, and standard PyTorch APIs, with minimal code changes. Additionally, TorchNeuron integrates with Neuron Kernel Interface (NKI) to enable custom operators and performance optimization for Trainium hardware. By the end, you should know:

• How to configure torch.profiler with the Neuron backend and capture a clean trace.
• How to read the key_averages() table to identify which operations consume Neuron device time and compare their Self CPU time.
• How to follow one operation through Neuron Explorer, from framework dispatch through runtime scheduling to hardware execution on a NeuronCore.
• How these signals change across three implementations of the same operation.

Neuron as a PyTorch Backend

Before you profile a workload, it helps to understand how Neuron integrates with PyTorch.

The Neuron backend uses PyTorch's PrivateUse1 extension point. This mechanism lets an accelerator integrate with the framework without adding a dedicated dispatch key such as cuda. The torch_neuronx package works with upstream PyTorch to register Neuron as a native backend for PyTorch code. For details about this extension mechanism, see Facilitating New Backend Integration by PrivateUse1.

Set Up the Profiler

You use two objects to profile a Neuron workload:

Tooling: Neuron Explorer

Profile RMSNorm

You profile three implementations of the same operation:

Profile 1: Naive PyTorch Operations

Self NEURON total: 2.355 ms