Energy Efficient Computing with Time-Based Digital Circuits

Abstract

Advancements in semiconductor technology have given the world economical, abundant, and reliable computing resources which have enabled countless breakthroughs in science, medicine, and agriculture which have improved the lives of many. Due to physics, the rate of these advancements is slowing, while the demand for the increasing computing horsepower ever grows. Novel computer architectures that leverage the foundation of conventional systems must become mainstream to continue providing the improved hardware required by engineers, scientists, and governments to innovate. This thesis provides a path forward by introducing multiple time-based computing architectures for a diverse range of applications. Simply put, time-based computing encodes the output of the computation in the time it takes to generate the result. Conventional systems encode this information in voltages across multiple signals; the performance of these systems is tightly coupled to improvements in semiconductor technology. Time-based computing elegantly uses the simplest of components from conventional systems to efficiently compute complex results. Two time-based neuromorphic computing platforms, based on a ring oscillator and a digital delay line, are described. An analog-to-digital converter is designed in the time domain using a beat frequency circuit which is used to record brain activity. A novel path planning architecture, with designs for 2D and 3D routes, is implemented in the time domain. Finally, a machine learning application using time domain inputs enables improved performance of heart rate prediction, biometric identification, and introduces a new method for using machine learning to predict temporal signal sequences. As these innovative architectures are presented, it will become clear the way forward will be increasingly enabled with time-based designs.