Abstract
The demise of Dennard’s scaling has created both power and utilization wall challenges for computer systems. As transistors operating in the near-threshold region are able to obtain flexible trade-offs between power and performance, it is regarded as an alternative solution to the scaling challenge. A reduction in supply voltage will nevertheless generate significant reliability challenges, while maintaining an error-free system that generates high costs in both performance and energy consumption. The main purpose of research on computer architecture has therefore shifted from performance improvement to complex multi-objective optimization. In this paper, we propose a three-dimensional optimization approach which can effectively identify the best system configuration to establish a balance among performance, energy, and reliability. We use a dynamic programming algorithm to determine the proper voltage and approximate level based on three predictors: system performance, energy consumption, and output quality. We propose an output quality predictor which uses a hardware/software co-design fault injection platform to evaluate the impact of the error on output quality under near-threshold computing (NTC). Evaluation results demonstrate that our approach can lead to a 28% improvement in output quality with a 10% drop in overall energy efficiency; this translates to an approximately 20% average improvement in accuracy, power, and performance.
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Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 62076168 and 61772350), Beijing Nova Program (No. Z181100006218093), and the Research Fund from Beijing Innovation Center for Future Chips (No. KYJJ2018008)
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Jing WANG and Wei-gong ZHANG designed the research. Wei-wei LIANG, Yue-hua NIU, and Lan GAO processed the data. Jing WANG and Wei-wei LIANG drafted the manuscript. Lan GAO helped organize the manuscript. Wei-gong ZHANG and Yue-hua NIU revised and finalized the paper.
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Jing WANG, Wei-wei LIANG, Yue-hua NIU, Lan GAO, and Wei-gong ZHANG declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Wang, J., Liang, Ww., Niu, Yh. et al. Multi-dimensional optimization for approximate near-threshold computing. Front Inform Technol Electron Eng 21, 1426–1441 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1631/FITEE.2000089
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/FITEE.2000089