Preview Functionality

Some of implemented functionality in Intel® Extension for Scikit-learn* doesn’t meet one or few of next requirements for being enabled by default for all users:

  • The functionality API is not stable and can be changed in future

  • The functionality doesn’t have full compatibility with stock Scikit-learn

  • The functionality misses performance targets compared to stock Scikit-learn or previously available version of functionality

  • The functionality is not fully tested

This type of functionality is available under preview mode of Intel® Extension for Scikit-learn* and located in the corresponding module (sklearnex.preview).

Preview functionality may or may not participate in patching of Scikit-learn. For example, a preview estimator may be a replacement for a stock one or a completely new one.

To enable preview functionality, you need to set the SKLEARNEX_PREVIEW environment variable to non-empty value before patching of Scikit-learn. For example, you can set the environment variable in the following way:

  • On Linux* OS

    export SKLEARNEX_PREVIEW=1

  • On Windows* OS

    set SKLEARNEX_PREVIEW=1

Then, you can import Scikit-learn estimator patched with a preview one from sklearnex.preview module:

from sklearnex import patch_sklearn
patch_sklearn()
from sklearn.decomposition import IncrementalPCA
print(IncrementalPCA.__module__)
# output:
# sklearnex.preview.decomposition.incremental_pca

Current list of preview estimators:

Estimator name

Module

Is patching supported

EmpiricalCovariance

sklearnex.preview.covariance

Yes

IncrementalPCA

sklearnex.preview.decomposition

Yes