Cooperative Arithmetic-Aware Approximation Techniques for Energy-Efficient Multipliers was presented by Sotirios Xydis in the 56th Annual Design Automation Conference 2019. The authors of this manuscript are Vasileios Leon, Konstantinos Asimakopoulos, Sotirios Xydis, Dimitrios Soudris and Kiamal Pekmestzi. 3 Posters were also presented.
Cooperative Arithmetic-Aware Approximation Techniques for Energy-Efficient Multipliers Abstract:
Approximate computing appears as an emerging and promising solution for energy-efficient system designs, exploiting the inherent error-tolerant nature of various applications. In this paper, targeting multiplication circuits, i.e., the energy-hungry counterpart of hardware accelerators, an extensive exploration of the error–energy trade-off, when combining arithmetic-level approximation techniques, is performed for the first time. Arithmetic-aware approximations deliver significant energy reductions, while allowing to control the error values with discipline by setting accordingly a configuration parameter. Inspired from the promising results of prior works with one configuration parameter, we propose 5 hybrid design families for approximate and energy-friendly hardware multipliers, consisting of two independent parameters to tune the approximation levels. Interestingly, the resolution of the state-of-the-art Pareto diagram is improved, giving the flexibility to achieve better energy gains for a specific error constraint imposed by the system. Moreover, we outperform prior works in the field of approximate multipliers by up to 60% energy reduction, and thus, we define the new Pareto front.