Abstract
Despite decades of advancements, modern computing systems which are based on the von Neumann architecture still carry its shortcomings. Moore's law, which had substantially masked the effects of the inherent memory-processor bottleneck of the von Neumann architecture, has slowed down due to transistor dimensions nearing atomic sizes. On the other hand, modern computational requirements, driven by machine learning, pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, data mining, and IoT, are growing at the fastest pace ever. By their inherent nature, these applications are particularly affected by communication-bottlenecks, because processing them requires a large number of simple operations involving data retrieval and storage. The need to address the problems associated with conventional computing systems at the fundamental level has given rise to several unconventional computing paradigms. In this dissertation, we have made advancements for automated syntheses of two types of unconventional computing paradigms: in-memory computing and stochastic computing. In-memory computing circumvents the problem of limited communication bandwidth by unifying processing and storage at the same physical locations. The advent of nanoelectronic devices in the last decade has made in-memory computing an energy-, area-, and cost-effective alternative to conventional computing. We have used Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) for in-memory computing on memristor crossbars. Specifically, we have used Free-BDDs, a special class of binary decision diagrams, for synthesizing crossbars for flow-based in-memory computing. Stochastic computing is a re-emerging discipline with several times smaller area/power requirements as compared to conventional computing systems. It is especially suited for fault-tolerant applications like image processing, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, etc. We have proposed a decision procedures-based iterative algorithm to synthesize Linear Finite State Machines (LFSM) for stochastically computing non-linear functions such as polynomials, exponentials, and hyperbolic functions.
Notes
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Graduation Date
2019
Semester
Summer
Advisor
Jha, Sumit Kumar
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
College
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Degree Program
Computer Engineering
Format
application/pdf
Identifier
CFE0007648
URL
http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0007648
Language
English
Release Date
August 2019
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Access Status
Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)
STARS Citation
Ul Hassen, Amad, "Automated Synthesis of Unconventional Computing Systems" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 6500.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/6500