Background Deep neural networks (DNNs) have been used in many different applications in recent years for pattern recognition and data mining, and are widely considered to be the dominant algorithmic framework in machine learning. However, DNNs are computationally and energetically intensive algorithms that perform billions of floating-point operations...

A substantial part of high energy consumption (> 60%) and large latency (> 90%) of conventional von-Neumann architectures can be attributed to the unavoidable data movement between the processor and main memory (DRAM). This is perhaps the major limiting factor for big data and machine learning applications whose usage is permeating into practically...

Synchronous logic remains the dominant design paradigm of digital systems such as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). The conventional design of sequential circuit networks is based on the assumption that every register receives the clock signal at the same time. However, guaranteeing the simultaneity of clock arrival times in practice...

Background Microelectronic circuits that obtain their energy from ambient energy sources (AES) through scavenging or harvesting are increasing in popularity, particularly with the burgeoning field of the Internet of Things (IoT). Some of the more common AES include solar, piezoelectric, vibration, airflow, and thermoelectric. The intermittent nature...

Invention Description Implementation of lookup tables (LUTs) in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) comes at the heavy cost of area, power, and performance. Researchers at Arizona State University have developed an alternative FPGA tile structure that consists of three traditional LUTs combined with a new reconfigurable threshold logic cell (TLC)....

Multi-core processors have become the de facto standard of computing systems in all market segments: smartphones, laptops, desktops, and servers. A fundamental problem is being able to control the operation of the individual cores so as to maximize some suitably chosen measure of quality of service. Often, the primary goal in the design of any computing...

The transition to multi-core processors has allowed their continued improvement within their limited power budget by using threads on multiple cores. By reducing the power per core and increasing the number of cores initially allowed, it is possible to circumvent the power wall of single core processors. Unfortunately, multi-core scaling is fast becoming...

Existing complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies are becoming obsolete because we have nearly reached the maximum capability of further miniaturizing computer chips built from modern, state-of-the-art materials. The semiconductor industry association predicts that further scaling is not sustainable and new technologies that can replace...

All digital circuits use sequences of logic gates that implement Boolean functions to store and transmit binary information. Threshold logic gates receive multiple input signals and produce a single output if the number of signals is below a hardwired threshold value, and can therefore process any Boolean function that might otherwise require multiple...

Very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) is a process of creating massive integrated circuits which enables design of all integrated circuit (IC) components onto a single chip. Thousands of transistors are combined onto a single chip, necessitating highly efficient data scanning in and out of each circuit. Typically the scan-in and scan-out operations are...