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Energy-Efficient Digital Processing via Approximate Computing

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Smart Systems Integration and Simulation

Abstract

While the most characteristic feature of a smart system is its capability of sensing a set of environmental quantities and actuating appropriate actions in response to those signals, it is obvious that a significant part of its functional operations is involved with the elaboration of the information carried by the signals [14]. This elaboration is usually done after converting the analog, asynchronous environmental signals into the digital domain.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    However, in many AC architectures errors are either affected by previous history of inputs and output values, or by external conditions, hence this definition is not valid.

  2. 2.

    The precise rate of timing errors depends on circuit topology and on the characteristics of input data. Moreover, it can be modified with optimization techniques (e.g., gate sizing).

  3. 3.

    In general, we use capital letters to refer to a signal, and lowercase ones to indicate its value at a given instant in time.

  4. 4.

    Different sequences of data may cause a different VOS-error rate, which results in a different quality, but they have no influence on the error mitigation capabilities of the architecture.

  5. 5.

    In its normal operating mode, the tool only synthesizes the replica configuration with minimum B r to satisfy a quality constraint at each V vos.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129, Torino, Italy

    Daniele Jahier Pagliari, Massimo Poncino & Enrico Macii

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  1. Daniele Jahier Pagliari
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  2. Massimo Poncino
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  3. Enrico Macii
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Correspondence to Daniele Jahier Pagliari .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipratimento di Informatica, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy

    Nicola Bombieri

  2. Dipartimento di Automatica, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

    Massimo Poncino

  3. Dipratimento di Informatica, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy

    Graziano Pravadelli

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Pagliari, D.J., Poncino, M., Macii, E. (2016). Energy-Efficient Digital Processing via Approximate Computing. In: Bombieri, N., Poncino, M., Pravadelli, G. (eds) Smart Systems Integration and Simulation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27392-1_4

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