Joint Precision Optimization and High Level Synthesis for Approximate Computing Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • 2015 ACM. Approximate computing has been recognized as an effective low power technique for applications with intrinsic error tolerance, such as image processing and machine learning. Existing efforts on this front are mostly focused on approximate circuit design, approximate logic synthesis or processor architecture approximation techniques. This work aims at how to make good use of approximate circuits at system and block level. In particular, approximation aware scheduling, functional unit allocation and binding algorithms are developed for data intensive applications. Simple yet credible error models, which are essential for precision control in the optimizations, are investigated. The algorithms are further extended to include bitwidth optimization in fixed point computations. Experimental results, including those from Verilog simulations, indicate that the proposed techniques facilitate desired energy savings under latency and accuracy constraints.

name of conference

  • Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Design Automation Conference

published proceedings

  • 2015 52ND ACM/EDAC/IEEE DESIGN AUTOMATION CONFERENCE (DAC)

author list (cited authors)

  • Li, C., Luo, W., Sapatnekar, S. S., & Hu, J.

citation count

  • 88

complete list of authors

  • Li, Chaofan||Luo, Wei||Sapatnekar, Sachin S||Hu, Jiang

publication date

  • June 2015