Frameworks and methodologies for search-based approximate logic synthesis / by Linus Matthias Witschen ; [Reviewers: Prof. Dr. Marco Platzner, Prof. Dr. Sybille Hellebrand, Prof. Dr. Laura Pozzi]. Paderborn, 2022
Content
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Abstract
- Zusammenfassung
- Author's Publications
- Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Listings
- List of Tables
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Background
- 2.1 Approximate Logic Synthesis
- 2.1.1 Overview
- 2.1.2 Approximate High-level Synthesis
- 2.1.3 Boolean Rewriting
- 2.1.4 Netlist Transformation
- 2.2 Quality Assurance
- 3 CIRCA: A Search-based Approximate Logic Synthesis Framework
- 3.1 Introduction
- 3.2 Classification of Existing Frameworks
- 3.3 Requirements for a Flexible Framework
- 3.4 The CIRCA Framework
- 3.4.1 The Concept of CIRCA
- 3.4.2 Search Space Exploration
- 3.4.3 Approximation
- 3.4.4 Estimation
- 3.4.5 Quality Assurance
- 3.4.6 Classification of CIRCA
- 3.4.7 The Configuration File
- 3.5 Experimental Results
- 3.6 Conclusion
- 4 Jump Search: Fast Synthesis of Approximate Circuits
- 4.1 Overview
- 4.2 Motivational Example and Conceptual Overview
- 4.3 Jump Search Methodology
- 4.4 Search Techniques and Their Limitations
- 4.5 Estimating a Candidate's Impact on Area
- 4.6 Estimating a Candidate's Impact on Error
- 4.6.1 Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator
- 4.6.2 Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion LASSO
- 4.6.3 Decision Trees and Random Forests
- 4.6.4 Comparison of the Feature Ranking Methods
- 4.7 Determining the Figure-of-merit
- 4.8 Implementation of Jump Search
- 4.9 Experimental Evaluation
- 4.9.1 Experimental Setup
- 4.9.2 Experimental Evaluation of Jump Search
- 4.9.3 Comparison of Synthesis and Verification Steps
- 4.9.4 Evaluation of the Pre-processing Phase
- 4.9.5 Discussion on the Figure-of-merits and Feature Ranking Methods
- 4.10 Conclusion
- 5 MUSCAT: A MUS-based Circuit Approximation Technique
- 5.1 Overview
- 5.2 Methodology
- 5.2.1 Cutpoints
- 5.2.2 Approximation Miter
- 5.2.3 Minimal Unsatisfiable Subsets
- 5.2.4 Approximate Logic Synthesis Flow
- 5.2.5 Discussion on the Insertion of Cutpoints
- 5.3 Experimental Results
- 5.3.1 Implementation and Experimental Setup
- 5.3.2 Overall Evaluation
- 5.3.3 Evaluation of Cutpoint Designs
- 5.3.4 Evaluation of Heuristics for Cutpoint Insertion
- 5.4 Case Study: Square of a Binomial
- 5.5 Conclusion
- 6 Proof-carrying Approximate Circuits
- 6.1 Overview
- 6.2 Proof-carrying Hardware
- 6.3 Proof-carrying Approximate Circuits
- 6.4 Verification-based Approximate Logic Synthesis
- 6.5 Experimental Results
- 6.6 Conclusion
- 7 Search Space Characterization for Approximate Logic Synthesis
- 7.1 Overview
- 7.2 Related Work and Novel Approach
- 7.3 Search Space Characterization via Formal Verification
- 7.3.1 Augmenting the Candidates
- 7.3.2 Approximation miter
- 7.3.3 Search Space Characterization Algorithm
- 7.4 Experimental Results
- 7.5 Conclusion
- 8 Conclusion
- 9 Outlook
- Bibliography
- Colophon