Large language models (LLMs) face a daunting challenge due to the excessive
computational and memory requirements of the commonly used Transformer
architecture. While state space model (SSM) is a new type of foundational
network architecture offering lower computational complexity, their performance
has yet to fully rival that of Transformers. This paper introduces DenseSSM, a
novel approach to enhance the flow of hidden information between layers in
SSMs. By selectively integrating shallowlayer hidden states into deeper layers,
DenseSSM retains fine-grained information crucial for the final output. Dense
connections enhanced DenseSSM still maintains the training parallelizability
and inference efficiency. The proposed method can be widely applicable to
various SSM types like RetNet and Mamba. With similar model size, DenseSSM
achieves significant improvements, exemplified by DenseRetNet outperforming the
original RetNet with up to 5% accuracy improvement on public benchmarks.

通过在 SSM 中选择性地将浅层隐藏状态集成到深层中，DenseSSM 提供了一种增强隐藏信息流动的新方法，能够在保持训练并行性和推理效率的同时，显著提高各种 SSM 类型的性能。