Treffer: Probabilistic arithmetic and energy efficient embedded signal processing

Probabilistic arithmetic, where the ith output bit of addition and multiplication is correct with a probability pi, is shown to be a vehicle for realizing extremely energy-efficient, embedded computing. Specifically, probabilistic adders and multipliers, realized using elements such as gates that are in turn probabilistic, are shown to form a natural basis for primitives in the signal processing (DSP) domain. In this paper, we show that probabilistic arithmetic can be used to compute the FFT in an extremely energy-efficient manner, yielding energy savings of over 5.6X in the context of the widely used synthetic aperture radar (SAR) application [1]. Our results are derived using novel probabilistic CMOS (PC-MOS) technology, characterized and applied in the past to realize ultra-efficient architectures for probabilistic applications [2, 3, 4]. When applied to the DSP domain, the resulting error in the output of a probabilistic arithmetic primitive, such as an adder for example, manifests as degradation in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the SAR image that is reconstructed through the FFT algorithm. In return for this degradation that is enabled by our probabilistic arithmetic primitives - degradation visually indistinguishable from an image reconstructed using conventional deterministic approaches - significant energy savings and performance gains are shown to be possible per unit of SNR degradation. These savings stem from a novel method of voltage scaling, which we refer to as biased voltage scaling (or Bivos), that is the major technical innovation on which our probabilistic designs are based.