Theory and experimental verification of configurable computing with stochastic memristors

Scientific Reports, vol. 11, pp. 4218

Abstract

The inevitable variability within electronic devices causes strict constraints on operation, reliability and scalability of the circuit design. However, when a compromise arises among the different performance metrics, area, time and energy, variability then loosens the tight requirements and allows for further savings in an alternative design scope. To that end, unconventional computing approaches are revived in the form of approximate computing, particularly tuned for resource-constrained mobile computing. In this paper, a proof-of-concept of the approximate computing paradigm using memristors is demonstrated. Stochastic memristors are used as the main building block of probabilistic logic gates. As will be shown in this paper, the stochasticity of memristors' switching characteristics is tightly bound to the supply voltage and hence to power consumption. By scaling of the supply voltage to appropriate levels stochasticity gets increased. In order to guide the design process of approximate circuits based on memristors a realistic device model needs to be elaborated with explicit emphasis of the probabilistic switching behavior. Theoretical formulation, probabilistic analysis, and simulation of the underlying logic circuits and operations are introduced. Moreover, the expected output behavior is verified with the experimental measurements of valence change memory cells. Hence, it is shown how the precision of the output is varied for the sake of the attainable gains at different levels of available design metrics. This approach represents the first proposition along with physical verification and mapping to real devices that combines stochastic memristors into unconventional computing approaches.

Authors 10

1. Rawan Naous

   King Abdullah University of Science and Technology · University of California, Berkeley

   Affiliation as printed

   Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

   Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

2. Anne Siemon Aachen Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik II

   Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik II (IWE II), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   JARA - Fundamentals for Future Information Technology, Jülich, Germany

3. Michael Schulten Aachen Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik II

   Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik II (IWE II), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   JARA - Fundamentals for Future Information Technology, Jülich, Germany

4. Hamzah Alahmadi

   University of California, Berkeley

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

5. Andreas Kindsmüller Aachen Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik II

   Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik II (IWE II), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   JARA - Fundamentals for Future Information Technology, Jülich, Germany

6. Michael Lübben Aachen Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik II

   Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik II (IWE II), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   JARA - Fundamentals for Future Information Technology, Jülich, Germany

7. Arne Heittmann

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

   Affiliation as printed

   JARA - Fundamentals for Future Information Technology, Jülich, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut 10 (PGI-10), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany

8. Rainer M. Waser Aachen Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik II

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik II (IWE II), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   JARA - Fundamentals for Future Information Technology, Jülich, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut 10 (PGI-10), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut 7 (PGI-7), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany

9. Khaled N. Salama

   University of California, Berkeley

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

10. Stephan Menzel corresponding

    Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

    Affiliation as printed

    JARA - Fundamentals for Future Information Technology, Jülich, Germany. st.menzel@fz-juelich.de

    Peter Grünberg Institut 7 (PGI-7), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany. st.menzel@fz-juelich.de

    JARA - Fundamentals for Future Information Technology, Jülich, Germany