Publication Details
Automated Search-Based Functional Approximation for Digital Circuits
Vašíček Zdeněk, doc. Ing., Ph.D. (DCSY)
Mrázek Vojtěch, Ing., Ph.D. (DCSY)
approximate circuit, genetic programming, arithmetic circuits, multi-objective
optimization
The problem of developing an approximate implementation of a given combinational
circuit can be formulated as a multi-objective design problem and solved by means
of a search algorithm. This approach usually provides many solutions showing
high-quality tradeoffs between key design objectives; however, it is very
computationally expensive. This chapter presents a general-purpose method based
on genetic programming for an automated functional approximation of combinational
circuits at the gate and register-transfer levels. It surveys relevant error
metrics and circuit parameters that are typically optimized by genetic
programming. A special attention is given to the techniques capable of providing
formal guarantees in terms of error bounds and accelerating the search process.
Case studies dealing with approximate implementations of arithmetic circuits and
image operators are presented to highlight the quality of results obtained by the
search-based functional approximation in completely different application
domains.
@inbook{BUT155015,
author="Lukáš {Sekanina} and Zdeněk {Vašíček} and Vojtěch {Mrázek}",
title="Automated Search-Based Functional Approximation for Digital Circuits",
booktitle="Approximate Circuits - Methodologies and CAD",
year="2019",
publisher="Springer International Publishing",
address="Heidelberg",
pages="175--203",
doi="10.1007/978-3-319-99322-5\{_}9",
isbn="978-3-319-99322-5",
url="https://www.fit.vut.cz/research/publication/11679/"
}