Approximate Logic Synthesis: a New Dimension in the Synthesis of Digital Circuits

Abstract

As energy efficiency becomes a crucial concern in every kind of digital application, Approximate Computing gains popularity as a potential answer to this ever-growing energy quest. Approximate Computing is a design paradigm which postulates the use of approximate computation, as opposed to exact, in order to significantly improve energy consumption and resources employment (such as electric power, or circuit area) at the expense of a slight reduction in output accuracy and hence of quality of result.In this talk I will introduce Approximate Logic Synthesis, the process of automatically deriving the functionality of approximate circuits, given their exact counterparts, while controlling the entailed error. I will presents the panorama of state of the art algorithms used to this purpose, and then I will introduce a methodology lately developed in my own group and based on a SAT formulation.