Energy-Quality Scaling in Analog Mesh Computers

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energy and resolution trade-offs in analog mesh computers, introduces a metric for their comparison, and proposes virtualization techniques to emulate larger meshes within fixed-size hardware.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of energy-quality scaling in analog mesh computers, introduces a new quantification metric, and presents virtualization methods for scalable analog computing.

Findings

Energy per bit scales with problem size and resolution.

A new metric effectively compares different analog mesh configurations.

Virtualization enables fixed-size meshes to emulate larger systems.

Abstract

The recent push for post-Moore computer architectures has introduced a wide variety of application-specific accelerators. One particular accelerator, the resistance network analogue, has been well received due to its ability to efficiently solve partial differential equations by eliminating the iterative stages required by today's numerical solvers. However, in the ago of programmable integrated circuits, the static nature of the resistance network analogue, and other analog mesh computers like it, has relegated it to an academic curiosity. Recent developments in materials, such as the memristor, have made the resistance network analogue viable for inclusion in future heterogeneous computer architectures. However, selection of an appropriate sized mesh to be incorporated into a computer system requires that energy-quality trade-offs are made regarding the problem size and required resolution of the solution. This paper provides an in-depth study of the scaling of analog mesh computer hardware, from the perspective of energy per bit and required resolution, introduces a metric to aid in quantifying analog mesh computers with different parameters, and introduces a method of virtualization which enables an analog mesh computer of a fixed size to approximate the calculations of a larger-sized mesh.