A Design Methodology for Fault-Tolerant Neuromorphic Computing Using Bayesian Neural Network

Abstract

Memristor crossbar arrays are a promising platform for neuromorphic computing. In practical scenarios, the synapse weights represented by the memristors for the underlying system are subject to process variations, in which the programmed weight when read out for inference is no longer deterministic but a stochastic distribution. It is therefore highly desired to learn the weight distribution accounting for process variations, to ensure the same inference performance in memristor crossbar arrays as the design value. In this paper, we introduce a design methodology for fault-tolerant neuromorphic computing using a Bayesian neural network, which combines the variational Bayesian inference technique with a fault-aware variational posterior distribution. The proposed framework based on Bayesian inference incorporates the impacts of memristor deviations into algorithmic training, where the weight distributions of neural networks are optimized to accommodate uncertainties and minimize inference degradation. The experimental results confirm the capability of the proposed methodology to tolerate both process variations and noise, while achieving more robust computing in memristor crossbar arrays.

Keywords

• neuromorphic computing
• memristor crossbar array
• process variation
• Bayesian neural network
• variational inference