  Diffusion models excel at generating photo-realistic images but come with
significant computational costs in both training and sampling. While various
techniques address these computational challenges, a less-explored issue is
designing an efficient and adaptable network backbone for iterative refinement.
Current options like U-Net and Vision Transformer often rely on
resource-intensive deep networks and lack the flexibility needed for generating
images at variable resolutions or with a smaller network than used in training.
This study introduces LEGO bricks, which seamlessly integrate Local-feature
Enrichment and Global-content Orchestration. These bricks can be stacked to
create a test-time reconfigurable diffusion backbone, allowing selective
skipping of bricks to reduce sampling costs and generate higher-resolution
images than the training data. LEGO bricks enrich local regions with an MLP and
transform them using a Transformer block while maintaining a consistent
full-resolution image across all bricks. Experimental results demonstrate that
LEGO bricks enhance training efficiency, expedite convergence, and facilitate
variable-resolution image generation while maintaining strong generative
performance. Moreover, LEGO significantly reduces sampling time compared to
other methods, establishing it as a valuable enhancement for diffusion models.
Our code and project page are available at
https://jegzheng.github.io/LEGODiffusion.
