Abstract: A method of operating a depth-wise separable convolutional (DSC) network on a DSC accelerator includes determining a difference between a first throughput associated with a depth-wise convolution (DWC) engine of the DSC accelerator and a second throughput associated with a point-wise convolution (PWC) engine of the DSC accelerator. The method also includes selectively activating, for each layer of the DSC network, each first processing elements (PEs) in one or more of a first set of columns of first PEs associated with the DWC engine and/or each second PE in one or more of a second set of columns associated with the PWC engine based on the difference between the first throughput and the second throughput. The method further includes processing, for each layer of the DSC network, an input via the DSC accelerator based on selectively activating each first PE and/or each second PE.