Low power resource efficient CORDIC enabled neuron architecture using 45 nm CMOS technology

Abstract

In this paper problem is addressed in the current study by providing resource-efficient CORDIC enabled neuron architecture (RECON) that can be customized to calculate both block of multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit and non-linear activation function (AF) operations. The CORDIC-enabled architecture implements MAC and AF operations using linear and trigonometric relationships, respectively. All physical parameters of the proposed design are built and verified using Cadence Virtuoso @ 45 nm technology. As compared to the conventional art of MAC design, our implementation of the signed fixed-point 8-bit MAC results in a 70% reduction in area, latency, and power product (ALP), as well as a 45 percent reduction in area, a 28% reduction in power dissipation, and a 20% reduction in latency. Both the process adjustments and the device mismatch are subjected to Monte-Carlo simulations. The proposed design is based on resource-intensive components such as multipliers and non-linear Activation Functions, modern hardware implementations of DNNs require more space (AFs). To access input features, weights, and biases, and improved on-chip quantized log2 based memory addressing approach is implemented. The bandwidth needs of DNNs' external memory are therefore decreased and dynamically adjusted. The Taylor series is also used to extract intensive higher speed and resource-efficient memory components for the various activation functions, and its order expansion has been altered for increased test accuracy. The MNIST dataset is used in earlier studies.

Keywords

• Activation function
• Embedded AF
• CORDIC
• Configurable architecture
• MAC
• Neural network