# FTSO: Effective NAS via First Topology Second Operator

Source: [FTSO: Effective NAS via First Topology Second Operator](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/68fa6ece1e209131cea424a1>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2025-10-26T01:07:49.028Z

Authors: Likang Wang, Lei Chen

Published: 2023-02-28T17:34:26.000Z

## Abstract

Existing one-shot neural architecture search (NAS) methods have to conduct a search over a giant super-net, which leads to the huge computational cost. To reduce such cost, in this paper, we propose a method, called FTSO, to divide the whole architecture search into two sub-steps. Specifically, in the first step, we only search for the topology, and in the second step, we search for the operators. FTSO not only reduces NAS's search time from days to 0.68 seconds, but also significantly improves the found architecture's accuracy. Our extensive experiments on ImageNet show that within 18 seconds, FTSO can achieve a 76.4% testing accuracy, 1.5% higher than the SOTA, PC-DARTS. In addition, FTSO can reach a 97.77% testing accuracy, 0.27% higher than the SOTA, with nearly 100% (99.8%) search time saved, when searching on CIFAR10.

## Recorded benchmark results

A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage.

## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12948>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.12948.pdf>)