NNI v1.4 release

Release 1.4 - 2/19/2020

Major Features

Neural Architecture Search

• Support C-DARTS algorithm and add the example using it
• Support a preliminary version of ProxylessNAS and the corresponding example
• Add unit tests for the NAS framework

Model Compression

• Support DataParallel for compressing models, and provide an example of using DataParallel
• Support model speedup for compressed models, in Alpha version

Training Service

• Support complete PAI configurations by allowing users to specify PAI config file path
• Add example config yaml files for the new PAI mode (i.e., paiK8S)
• Support deleting experiments using sshkey in remote mode (thanks external contributor @tyusr)

WebUI

• WebUI refactor: adopt fabric framework

Others

• Support running NNI experiment at foreground, i.e., --foreground argument in nnictl create/resume/view
• Support canceling the trials in UNKNOWN state
• Support large search space whose size could be up to 50mb (thanks external contributor @Sundrops)

Documentation

• Improve the index structure of NNI readthedocs
• Improve documentation for NAS
• Improve documentation for the new PAI mode
• Add QuickStart guidance for NAS and model compression
• Improve documentation for the supported EfficientNet

Bug Fixes

• Correctly support NaN in metric data, JSON compliant
• Fix the out-of-range bug of randint type in search space
• Fix the bug of wrong tensor device when exporting onnx model in model compression
• Fix incorrect handling of nnimanagerIP in the new PAI mode (i.e., paiK8S)