The synthesis of robust polynomial arithmetic with stochastic logic

As integrated circuit technology plumbs ever greater depths in the scaling of feature sizes, maintaining the paradigm of deterministic Boolean computation is increasingly challenging. Indeed, mounting concerns over noise and uncertainty in signal values motivate a new approach: the design of stochastic logic, that is to say, digital circuitry that processes signals probabilistically, and so can cope with errors and uncertainty. In this paper, we present a general methodology for synthesizing stochastic logic for the computation of polynomial arithmetic functions, a category that is important for applications such as digital signal processing. The method is based on converting polynomials into a particular mathematical form ? Bernstein polynomials ? and then implementing the computation with stochastic logic. The resulting logic processes serial or parallel streams that are random at the bit level. In the aggregate, the computation becomes accurate, since the results depend only on the...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: DAC
• Authors: Weikang Qian, Marc D. Riedel
• Keywords: DAC 2008, Design Automation, Design Styles--Combinational Logic, Keywords Stochastic Logic, Stochastic Logic