import tensorflow as tf

      name: name of the variable
      shape: list of ints
      initializer: initializer for Variable
    Returns:
      Variable Tensor
    """
    with tf.device('/cpu:0'):
        dtype = tf.float16 if use_fp16 else tf.float32
        var = tf.get_variable(name, shape, initializer=initializer, dtype=dtype)
    return var


