Race Logic Research Articles

“remember that a white woman is a white man”: Ronelda S. Kamfer’s Black Feminist Poetry as Corrective to the Race Logic of White Afrikaans Literary Feminisms

Abstract The creation of the Afrikaner volk and the violent appropriation and institutionalization of the Afrikaans language as white cultural property around the beginning of the twentieth century in South Africa was a patriarchal project from the outset. The canon of Afrikaans literature reflects both the erasure of Black subjects from the official history and recorded footprint of the language as well as the failure of white Afrikaans feminism to challenge these erasures and patriarchal structures of white power. In this essay we argue that Ronelda Kamfer’s poetry collection Chinatown (2019) functions as a powerful corrective to literary Afrikaans whitestream feminism and that Kamfer’s defiant relational intersectionality enables an alternative way of world-making beyond the disciplinary mechanisms and exclusionary technologies of white colonial patriarchy.

EU AI sovereignty: for whom, to what end, and to whose benefit?

ABSTRACT EU policy emphasises the need for digital sovereignty, also in artificial intelligence (AI). But because such ‘AI sovereignty’ could be used for diverse and even conflicting goals, it obscures the tensions that actual EU AI strategy entails. Conceptually, this article proposes three central trade-offs: first, does AI sovereignty pit the EU against other major AI powers, or rather citizens against large tech companies? Second, is AI sovereignty meant to boost the EU’s position in a putative AI race, or is it a means to defy this competitiveness-logic, instead? And third, is EU AI sovereignty primarily meant to benefit European citizens, or does it embrace a global responsibility? The empirical analysis then maps the EU Commission’s AI strategy since 2018 and the EU AI Act negotiations onto these three dimensions. It reveals that EU AI policy prioritises jurisdictional independence over citizens sovereignty, that it embraces a global AI race logic, and that it largely neglects its impact on people beyond the EU. This orientation of EU AI sovereignty resonates with and feeds into rising geo-economic tensions. But it would underestimate the importance of public policy to assume that it flowed naturally from technological transformations, rather than from political choices.

Count-Free Single-Photon 3D Imaging with Race Logic.

Single-photon cameras (SPCs) have emerged as a promising new technology for high-resolution 3D imaging. A single-photon 3D camera determines the round-trip time of a laser pulse by precisely capturing the arrival of individual photons at each camera pixel. Constructing photon-timestamp histograms is a fundamental operation for a single-photon 3D camera. However, in-pixel histogram processing is computationally expensive and requires large amount of memory per pixel. Digitizing and transferring photon timestamps to an off-sensor histogramming module is bandwidth and power hungry. Can we estimate distances without explicitly storing photon counts? Yes-here we present an online approach for distance estimation suitable for resource-constrained settings with limited bandwidth, memory and compute. The two key ingredients of our approach are (a) processing photon streams using race logic, which maintains photon data in the time-delay domain, and (b) constructing count-free equi-depth histograms as opposed to conventional equi-width histograms. Equi-depth histograms are a more succinct representation for "peaky" distributions, such as those obtained by an SPC pixel from a laser pulse reflected by a surface. Our approach uses a binner element that converges on the median (or, more generally, to another k-quantile) of a distribution. We cascade multiple binners to form an equi-depth histogrammer that produces multi-bin histograms. Our evaluation shows that this method can provide at least an order of magnitude reduction in bandwidth and power consumption while maintaining similar distance reconstruction accuracy as conventional histogram-based processing methods.

PaST-NoC: A Packet-Switched Superconducting Temporal NoC

Temporal computing promises to mitigate the stringent area constraints and clock distribution overheads of traditional superconducting digital computing. To design a scalable, area- and power-efficient superconducting network on chip (NoC), we propose packet-switched superconducting temporal NoC (PaST-NoC). PaST-NoC operates its control path in the temporal domain using race logic (RL), combined with bufferless deflection flow control to minimize area. Packets encode their destination using RL and carry a collection of data pulses that the receiver can interpret as pulse trains, RL, serialized binary, or other formats. We demonstrate how to scale up PaST-NoC to arbitrary topologies based on 2x2 routers and 4x4 butterflies as building blocks. As we show, if data pulses are interpreted using RL, PaST-NoC outperforms state-of-the-art superconducting binary NoCs in throughput per area by as much as 5x for long packets.

Superconducting Shuttle-Flux Shift Register for Race Logic and Its Applications

This paper presents a superconducting, magnetically-coupled, shuttle-flux shift register (SF-SR) that stores single flux quantum (SFQ) pulses. This shift register has a DC bias operating margin of ±34% at 10 GHz, with a power dissipation of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3.6~\mu W$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and 38% fewer Josephson junctions (JJs) when scaled up to multiple stages compared to a data flip-flop (DFF) based shift register. The clock input is inductively coupled and is independent from the data input. We then present three applications for our SF-SR. In the first application, we add two non-destructive readout (NDRO) cells to construct a buffer that temporarily stores the temporal information of a series of race logic (RL) pulses. The second application is a pseudo-random number generator based on a linear function shift register (LFSR). The third application is N parallel SF-SRs that can act similar to a deserializer or instead can emulate a single SF-SR of N times higher clock frequency. These three applications motivate deep shift registers with many shifting intervals, which our SF-SR can implement with fewer JJs and lower power consumption compared to DFF-based shift registers.

In-sensor classification with boosted race trees

When extremely low-energy processing is required, the choice of data representation makes a tremendous difference. Each representation (e.g., frequency domain, residue coded, and log-scale) embodies a different set of tradeoffs based on the algebraic operations that are either easy or hard to perform in that domain. We demonstrate the potential of a novel form of encoding, race logic, in which information is represented as the delay in the arrival of a signal. Under this encoding, the ways in which signal delays interact and interfere with one another define the operation of the system. Observations of the relative delays (for example, the outcome of races between signals) define the output of the computation. Interestingly, completely standard hardware logic elements can be repurposed to this end and the resulting embedded systems have the potential to be extremely energy efficient. To realize this potential in a practical design, we demonstrate two different approaches to the creation of programmable tree-based ensemble classifiers in an extended set of race logic primitives; we explore the trade-offs inherent to their operation across sensor, hardware architecture, and algorithm; and we compare the resulting designs against traditional state-of-the-art hardware techniques.

Technical perspective: Race logic presents a novel form of encoding

Technical perspective: Race logic presents a novel form of encoding

Temporal State Machines: Using Temporal Memory to Stitch Time-based Graph Computations.

Race logic, an arrival-time-coded logic family, has demonstrated energy and performance improvements for applications ranging from dynamic programming to machine learning. However, the various ad hoc mappings of algorithms into hardware rely on researcher ingenuity and result in custom architectures that are difficult to systematize. We propose to associate race logic with the mathematical field of tropical algebra, enabling a more methodical approach toward building temporal circuits. This association between the mathematical primitives of tropical algebra and generalized race logic computations guides the design of temporally coded tropical circuits. It also serves as a framework for expressing high-level timing-based algorithms. This abstraction, when combined with temporal memory, allows for the systematic exploration of race logic-based temporal architectures by making it possible to partition feed-forward computations into stages and organize them into a state machine. We leverage analog memristor-based temporal memories to design such a state machine that operates purely on time-coded wavefronts. We implement a version of Dijkstra's algorithm to evaluate this temporal state machine. This demonstration shows the promise of expanding the expressibility of temporal computing to enable it to deliver significant energy and throughput advantages.

Temporal Computing With Superconductors

Creating computing systems able to address our ever-increasing needs, especially as we reach the end of CMOS transistor scaling, will require truly novel methods of computing. However, the traditional logic abstractions and the digital design patterns we understand so well have coevolved with the hardware technology that has embodied them. As we look past CMOS, there is no reason to think that those same abstractions best serve to encapsulate the computational potential inherent to emerging devices. We posit that a new and radically more efficient foundation for computing lies at the intersection of superconductor electronics and delay-coded computation. Building on recent work in race logic, we show that superconducting circuits can naturally compute directly over temporal relationships between pulse arrivals; that the computational relationships between those pulse arrivals can be formalized through a functional extension to a temporal predicate logic used in the verification community; and that the resulting architectures can operate asynchronously and describe real and useful computations. We verify our hypothesis through a combination of detailed analog circuit models and layout designs, a formal analysis of our abstractions, and an evaluation of several superconducting temporal accelerators.

Temporal Memory With Magnetic Racetracks

Race logic is a relative timing code that represents information in a wavefront of digital edges on a set of wires in order to accelerate dynamic programming and machine learning algorithms. Skyrmions, bubbles, and domain walls are mobile magnetic configurations (solitons) with applications for Boolean data storage. We propose to use current-induced displacement of these solitons on magnetic racetracks as a native temporal memory for race logic computing. Locally synchronized racetracks can spatially store relative timings of digital edges and provide non-destructive read-out. The linear kinematics of skyrmion motion, the tunability and low-voltage asynchronous operation of the proposed device, and the elimination of any need for constant skyrmion nucleation make these magnetic racetracks a natural memory for low-power, high-throughput race logic applications.

(Invited) Unconventional Computing with Memristors

By now, there have been many demonstrations of resistive switching (“memristive”) devices based on organic, chalcogenide, transition metal-oxide and silicon materials and involving different physical switching mechanisms, such as phase-change transitions and modulation of the ionic concentration profiles by electrical and/or thermal forces. The conductance of some properly engineered memristors can be continuously tuned with relatively large electrical bias, and retained, effectively indefinitely, when small stress is applied. Such analog nonvolatile memory functionality combined with potentially very high device density, achieved by lateral scaling and/or monolithical vertical integration, enable many new exciting applications of memristors in neuromorphic and other types of computing. In my talk, I will review several such applications based on metal-oxide memristors which were a recent focus of my group. I will start with stateful material implication logic, which was originally suggested by HPL group. In our work, we showed that 3D version of this logic allows resolving Feynman grand challenge of implementing 8-bit adder in a volume smaller than 50-nm cube. I will then review our experimental work on memristor-based security primitives, in which we utilized device variations and their nonlinear I-Vs to demonstrate functionality and physical performance superior to those of conventional approaches. Finally, I will discuss Race Logic, a novel computing paradigm in which information is encoded in timing of the signals, so that a particular problem is mapped to a circuit with controllable memristor-based delay elements, and the solution is provided by measuring the time for the injected signals to propagate via circuit. Due to direct encoding of the computation to the underlying physics, Race Logic is extremely energy efficient for a variety of problems, such as bioinformatics and neurocomputing. I will conclude my talk with a summary on the device/material challenges, and potential future work, specific to the discussed applications.

Race Logic: Abusing Hardware Race Conditions to Perform Useful Computation

This article proposes a novel computing approach, dubbed race logic, in which information, instead of being represented as logic levels (as in conventional logic), is represented as a timing delay. Under this new representation, computations are based on the observation of the relative propagation times of signals injected into the circuit (that is, the outcome of races). Race logic is especially suited for solving problems related to the traversal of directed acyclic graphs commonly used in dynamic programming algorithms. The main advantage of this novel approach is that information processing (min-max and addition operations) can be efficiently expressed through the manipulation of the natural delay chaining inherent to digital designs, which then results in superior latency, throughput, and energy efficiency. To verify this hypothesis, the authors designed several race logic implementations of a DNA global sequence alignment engine and compared them to a state-of-the-art conventional systolic array implementation. The synthesized design shows that synchronous race logic is up to 4x faster when both approaches are mapped to 0.5-micron CMOS standard cell technology. At the same time, the throughput for sequence matching per circuit area is about 3x higher at 5x lower power density for 20-long-symbol DNA sequences.

Race logic

We propose a novel computing approach, dubbed "Race Logic", in which information, instead of being represented as logic levels, as is done in conventional logic, is represented as a timing delay. Under this new information representation, computations can be performed by observing the relative propagation times of signals injected into the circuit (i.e. the outcome of races). Race Logic is especially suited for solving problems related to the

Touched by injury: toward an educational theory of anti-racist humanism

Informed by the critical humanisms of Hannah Arendt, Frantz Fanon, and Paul Gilroy, the authors argue for an orientation to teaching and learning that troubles the continuing effects of dehumanizing race logic. Reflecting on Paul Haggis's Oscar award winning film Crash from 2004, they suggest that the metaphor of racial ‘crashing’ captures what happens when we act out from experiences of racial injury instead of being touched by it. They propose a psychoanalytic pedagogy of emotions as a method for reading representation beyond the limits of detached rational critique. Learning from the affect of racial injury as it is made manifest in representation, they suggest, is an important ethical starting point for generating new insights into what it might mean to live within and beyond contemporary legacies of racial hatred.

Drugs and Double Binds: Racial Identification and Pharmacogenomics in a System of Binary Race Logic

People respond to drugs in different ways depending on their genotype. Some geneticists and medical researchers have suggested using race as a substitute for genotype in prescribing medication. Overall, individuals resist the prescription of medication based on race, but some minority individuals, although indicating resistance and suspicion, ultimately choose race-based medication. This can be explained by the operation of Burkean identification in a system of binary race logic. Although individuals resist race-based medication and recognize race is not a legitimate genetic category, their identification with a racial–ethnic group places them in a double bind between choosing race-based medication or denying their racial identification.

Professional Football Scouts: An Investigation of Racial Stacking

In this article the author examines sports guides that are dedicated to critiquing collegiate football players eligible for the annual National Football League amateur draft. An effort is made to assess whether the scouts in these guides describe collegiate players in ways that correspond with U.S. race logic as articulated by Coakley (1998). More specifically, the article focuses on the mental and physical descriptions of African American and White athletes by professional scouts. The results show that African American players are more likely to be described in physical terms (rather than mental terms) than are White players in the same positions.

Richer and Whiter: How Publishers of Popular Magazines Construct their Readerships for Advertisers

This research examines the role magazines play as part of popular culture in the reproduction of inequality. We analyze statistics and images that magazine publishers make available to advertisers through media kits (n = 63). We hypothesize that race, class, and gender logic within the industry affect what information is presented to advertisers and that this information emphasizes what editors and publishers believe to be the characteristics of a desirable audience. We also hypothesize that this same logic influences the selection of magazine editors. Our results indicate that editors tend to be of the same gender as the readership of the magazine they edit (women editors for women's magazines, men editors for men's magazines). Although nine women's magazines have men as their editors, no men's magazines have women as their editors. Further, statistics on race and class within the media kits de-emphasize nonwhite readers and overemphasize the presence of reoders with high household incomes. We conclude that media kits reveal the publishers' bias for existing hegemonic race, class, and gender logic.

Race logic architecture (RALA): a novel logic concept using the race scheme of input variables

A novel logic concept, Race Logic Architecture (RALA), is proposed. RALA is a new logic operation architecture in that the racing between input variables along the interconnection lines functions as an active logic element instead of logic gates, while the logic gates play a simple passive role. Logic operations of RALA are based on wired-OR that utilizes shared space and serial-AND that utilizes the triggering sequence of input variables. With these two concepts, RALA can implement arbitrary Boolean operations. Various kinds of combinational circuits are simulated and compared with RALAs. RALA shows the best performance in delay time, area, and power product results. A 64-bit carry-look-ahead adder with RALA is fabricated by 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS technology to verify its feasibility and functionality. The area of the adder is 800 /spl mu/m/spl times/150 /spl mu/m, and the delay time from the clock to Sum31 measured 0.9 ns.

Race Logic and “Being like Mike”: Representations of Athletes in Advertising, 1985–1994

Although participation in sports by black athletes has increased, evidence remains that these athletes still face discriminatory practices. One arena in which black athletes are treated differently from their white counterparts is the advertising of products by athletic spokespersons. This paper examines the stereotypes used in portraying black athletes in advertising by scrutinizing advertisements in Sports Illustrated from 1985 to 1994. I hypothesize that advertisers will draw on stereotypes from both sport and more general society to depict athletes. Two hundred ten advertisements in the sample contain well-known athletes; content analysis reveals that black athletes are more likely to be portrayed as succeeding because of innate physical abilities, while white athletes are more often portrayed as succeeding because of hard work, intelligence or leadership qualities. In addition, black athletes are more Likely to be portrayed as angry, violent or hypersexual.