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This paper presents an extensive study of linear and logistic regression algorithms implemented with 1T1R memristor crossbars arrays. Using a sophisticated simulation platform that wraps circuit-level simulations of 1T1R crossbars and physics-based models of RRAM (memristors), we elucidate the impact of device variability on algorithm accuracy, convergence rate and precision. Moreover, a smart pulsing strategy is proposed for practical implementation of synaptic weight updates that can accelerate training in real crossbar architectures. Stochastic multi-variable linear regression shows robustness to memristor variability in terms of prediction accuracy but reveals impact on convergence rate and precision. Similarly, the stochastic logistic regression crossbar implementation reveals immunity to memristor variability as determined by negligible effects on image classification accuracy but indicates an impact on training performance manifested as reduced convergence rate and degraded precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are increasingly being used in a variety of applications. However, DNNs have huge computational and memory requirements. One way to reduce these requirements is to sparsify DNNs by using smoothed LASSO (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator) functions. In this paper, we show that irrespective of error profile, the sparsity values obtained using various smoothed LASSO functions are similar, provided the maximum error of these functions with respect to the LASSO function is the same. We also propose a layer-wise DNN pruning algorithm, where the layers are pruned based on their individual allocated accuracy loss budget, determined by estimates of the reduction in number of multiply-accumulate operations (in convolutional layers) and weights (in fully connected layers). Further, the structured LASSO variants in both convolutional and fully connected layers are explored within the smoothed LASSO framework and the tradeoffs involved are discussed. The efficacy of proposed algorithm in enhancing the sparsity within the allowed degradation in DNN accuracy and results obtained on structured LASSO variants are shown on MNIST, SVHN, CIFAR-10, and Imagenette datasets and on larger networks such as ResNet-50 and Mobilenet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperdimensional computing (HDC) is a brain-inspired computing paradigm-based on high-dimensional holistic representations of vectors. It recently gained attention for embedded smart sensing due to its inherent error-resiliency and suitability to highly parallel hardware implementations. In this work, we propose a programmable all-digital CMOS implementation of a fully autonomous HDC accelerator for always-on classification in energy-constrained sensor nodes. By using energy-efficient standard cell memory (SCM), the design is easily cross-technology mappable. It achieves extremely low power, 5 $\mu \text{W}$ in typical applications, and an energy efficiency improvement over the state-of-the-art (SoA) digital architectures of up to $3\times $ in post-layout simulations for always-on wearable tasks such as Electromyography (EMG) hand gesture recognition. As part of the accelerator’s architecture, we introduce novel hardware-friendly embodiments of common HDC-algorithmic primitives, which results in $3.3\times $ technology scaled area reduction over the SoA, achieving the same accuracy levels in all examined targets. The proposed architecture also has a fully configurable datapath using microcode optimized for HDC stored on an integrated SCM-based configuration memory, making the design “general-purpose” in terms of HDC algorithm flexibility. This flexibility allows usage of the accelerator across novel HDC tasks, for instance, a newly designed HDC-algorithm for the task of ball bearing fault detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]