Margin Propagation based Analog Soft-Gates for Probabilistic Computing

Nandi, A and Kumar, P and Chakrabartty, S and Thakur, CS (2024) Margin Propagation based Analog Soft-Gates for Probabilistic Computing. In: 37th International Conference on VLSI Design, VLSID 2024, 6 January 2024through 10 January 2024, Kolkata, West Bengal, pp. 378-383.

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Abstract

Soft computing gates offer a promising approach for efficient and parallel processing of probabilistic signals. These gates are widely used in Bayesian networks and various machine learning models. However, unlike digital logic gates, the design and scaling of analog Soft-Gates is challenging due to analog artifacts, i.e., sensitivity to biasing, mismatch, and temperature variations. In this paper, we present a systematic framework for designing analog Soft-Gates that leverage the bias and temperature scalability of the Margin Propagation principle. Specifically, the paper proposes an adaptive design strategy to alleviate mismatch artifacts and to trade-off probabilistic computational accuracy, area efficiency, and power consumption. We demonstrate the design synthesis of a Soft-Gate and apply it to error correction decoding and filtering tasks. The reported Mean Square Error of the Soft-Gate is less than 10-2, indicating its accuracy in probabilistic computations. For edge filtering applications, the proposed Soft-Gates can achieve an average Structural Similarity Index of 0.95. The estimated energy consumption in 180nm CMOS technology is in the order of pico-Joules, validating the gate's energy efficiency. © 2024 IEEE.

Item Type:	Conference Paper
Publication:	Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on VLSI Design
Publisher:	IEEE Computer Society
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to IEEE Computer Society.
Keywords:	Bayesian networks; Computation theory; Computational efficiency; Computer circuits; Economic and social effects; Energy efficiency; Energy utilization; Error correction; Green computing; Sensitivity analysis; Soft computing, Analog computing; Analog soft-gate; Generalized margin propagation; Probabilistic computation; Probabilistic computing; Probabilistics; Shape based; Shape-based analog computing; Soft gate; Soft-Computing, Mean square error
Department/Centre:	Division of Electrical Sciences > Electronic Systems Engineering (Formerly Centre for Electronic Design & Technology)
Date Deposited:	28 Aug 2024 11:48
Last Modified:	28 Aug 2024 11:48
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/84864

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