Evaluating Built-in ECC of FPGA on-chip Memories for the Mitigation of Undervolting Faults

Voltage underscaling below the nominal level is an effective solution for improving energy efficiency in digital circuits, e.g., Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). However, further undervolting below a safe voltage level and without accompanying frequency scaling leads to timing related faults, potentially undermining the energy savings. Through experimental voltage underscaling studies on commercial FPGAs, we observed that the rate of these faults exponentially increases for on-chip memories, or Block RAMs (BRAMs). To mitigate these faults, we evaluated the efficiency of the built-in Error-Correction Code (ECC) and observed that more than 90% of the faults are correctable and further 7% are detectable (but not correctable). This efficiency is the result of the single-bit type of these faults, which are then effectively covered by the Single-Error Correction and Double-Error Detection (SECDED) design of the built-in ECC. Finally, motivated by the above experimental observations, we evaluated an FPGA-based Neural Network (NN) accelerator under low-voltage operations, while built-in ECC is leveraged to mitigate undervolting faults and thus, prevent NN significant accuracy loss. In consequence, we achieve 40% of the BRAM power saving through undervolting below the minimum safe voltage level, with a negligible NN accuracy loss, thanks to the substantial fault coverage by the built-in ECC.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

An Experimental Study of Reduced-Voltage Operation in Modern FPGAs for Neural Network Acceleration

We empirically evaluate an undervolting technique, i.e., underscaling the circuit supply voltage below the nominal level, to improve the power-efficiency of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) accelerators mapped to Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Undervolting below a safe voltage level can lead to timing faults due to excessive circuit latency increase. We evaluate the reliability-power trade-off for such accelerators. Specifically, we experimentally study the reduced-voltage operation of multiple components of real FPGAs, characterize the corresponding reliability behavior of CNN accelerators, propose techniques to minimize the drawbacks of reduced-voltage operation, and combine undervolting with architectural CNN optimization techniques, i.e., quantization and pruning. We investigate the effect of environmental temperature on the reliability-power trade-off of such accelerators. We perform experiments on three identical samples of modern Xilinx ZCU102 FPGA platforms with five state-of-the-art image classification CNN benchmarks. This approach allows us to study the effects of our undervolting technique for both software and hardware variability. We achieve more than 3X power-efficiency (GOPs/W) gain via undervolting. 2.6X of this gain is the result of eliminating the voltage guardband region, i.e., the safe voltage region below the nominal level that is set by FPGA vendor to ensure correct functionality in worst-case environmental and circuit conditions. 43% of the power-efficiency gain is due to further undervolting below the guardband, which comes at the cost of accuracy loss in the CNN accelerator. We evaluate an effective frequency underscaling technique that prevents this accuracy loss, and find that it reduces the power-efficiency gain from 43% to 25%.Comment: To appear at the DSN 2020 conferenc

Comprehensive Evaluation of Supply Voltage Underscaling in FPGA on-Chip Memories

In this work, we evaluate aggressive undervolting, i.e., voltage scaling below the nominal level to reduce the energy consumption of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Usually, voltage guardbands are added by chip vendors to ensure the worst-case process and environmental scenarios. Through experimenting on several FPGA architectures, we measure this voltage guardband to be on average 39% of the nominal level, which in turn, delivers more than an order of magnitude power savings. However, further undervolting below the voltage guardband may cause reliability issues as the result of the circuit delay increase, i.e., start to appear faults. We extensively characterize the behavior of these faults in terms of the rate, location, type, as well as sensitivity to environmental temperature, with a concentration of on-chip memories, or Block RAMs (BRAMs). Finally, we evaluate a typical FPGA-based Neural Network (NN) accelerator under low-voltage BRAM operations. In consequence, the substantial NN energy savings come with the cost of NN accuracy loss. To attain power savings without NN accuracy loss, we propose a novel technique that relies on the deterministic behavior of undervolting faults and can limit the accuracy loss to 0.1% without any timing-slack overhead.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Experimental study of aggressive undervolting in FPGAs

In this work, we evaluate aggressive undervolting, i.e., voltage scaling below the nominal level to reduce the energy consumption of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Usually, voltage guardbands are added by chip vendors to ensure the worst-case process and environmental scenarios. Through experimenting on several FPGA architectures, we measure this voltage guardband to be on average 39% of the nominal level, which in turn, delivers more than an order of magnitude power savings. However, further undervolting below the voltage guardband may cause reliability issues as the result of the circuit delay increase, i.e., start to appear faults. We extensively characterize the behavior of these faults in terms of the rate, location, type, as well as sensitivity to environmental temperature, with a concentration of on-chip memories, or Block RAMs (BRAMs). Finally, we evaluate a typical FPGA-based Neural Network (NN) accelerator under low-voltage BRAM operations. In consequence, the substantial NN energy savings come with the cost of NN accuracy loss. To attain power savings without NN accuracy loss, we propose a novel technique that relies on the deterministic behavior of undervolting faults and can limit the accuracy loss to 0.1% without any timing-slack overhea

An experimental study of reduced-voltage operation in modern FPGAs for neural network acceleration

We empirically evaluate an undervolting technique, i.e., underscaling the circuit supply voltage below the nominal level, to improve the power-efficiency of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) accelerators mapped to Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Undervolting below a safe voltage level can lead to timing faults due to excessive circuit latency increase. We evaluate the reliability-power trade-off for such accelerators. Specifically, we experimentally study the reduced-voltage operation of multiple components of real FPGAs, characterize the corresponding reliability behavior of CNN accelerators, propose techniques to minimize the drawbacks of reduced-voltage operation, and combine undervolting with architectural CNN optimization techniques, i.e., quantization and pruning. We investigate the effect ofenvironmental temperature on the reliability-power trade-off of such accelerators. We perform experiments on three identical samples of modern Xilinx ZCU102 FPGA platforms with five state-of-the-art image classification CNN benchmarks. This approach allows us to study the effects of our undervolting technique for both software and hardware variability. We achieve more than 3X power-efficiency (GOPs/W ) gain via undervolting. 2.6X of this gain is the result of eliminating the voltage guardband region, i.e., the safe voltage region below the nominal level that is set by FPGA vendor to ensure correct functionality in worst-case environmental and circuit conditions. 43% of the power-efficiency gain is due to further undervolting below the guardband, which comes at the cost of accuracy loss in the CNN accelerator. We evaluate an effective frequency underscaling technique that prevents this accuracy loss, and find that it reduces the power-efficiency gain from 43% to 25%.The work done for this paper was partially supported by a HiPEAC Collaboration Grant funded by the H2020 HiPEAC Project under grant agreement No. 779656. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme under the LEGaTO Project (www.legato-project.eu), grant agreement No. 780681.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Aggressive undervolting of FPGAs : power & reliability trade-offs

In this work, we evaluate aggressive undervolting, i.e., voltage underscaling below the nominal level to reduce the energy consumption of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Usually, voltage guardbands are added by chip vendors to ensure the worst-case process and environmental scenarios. Through experimenting on several FPGA architectures, we con¿rm a large voltage guardband for several FPGA components, which in turn, delivers signi¿cant power savings. However, further undervolting below the voltage guardband may cause reliability issues as the result of the circuit delay increase, and faults might start to appear. We extensively characterize the behavior of these faults in terms of the rate, location, type, as well as sensitivity to environmental temperature, primarily focusing on FPGA on-chip memories, or Block RAMs (BRAMs). Understanding this behavior can allow to deploy ef¿cient mitigation techniques, and in turn, FPGA-based designs can be improved for better energy, reliability, and performance trade-offs. Finally, as a case study, we evaluate a typical FPGA-based Neural Network (NN) accelerator when the FPGA voltage is underscaled. In consequence, the substantial NN energy savings come with the cost of NN accuracy loss. To attain power savings without NN accuracy loss below the voltage guardband gap, we proposed an application-aware technique and we also, evaluated the built-in Error-Correcting Code (ECC) mechanism. Hence, First, we developed an application-dependent BRAMs placement technique that relies on the deterministic behavior of undervolting faults, and mitigates these faults by mapping the most reliability sensitive NN parameters to BRAM blocks that are relatively more resistant to undervolting faults. Second, as a more general technique, we applied the built-in ECC of BRAMs and observed a signi¿cant fault coverage capability thanks to the behavior of undervolting faults, with a negligible power consumption overhead.En este trabajo, evaluamos el reducir el voltaje en forma agresiva, es decir, bajar la tensión por debajo del nivel nominal para reducir el consumo de energía en Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). Por lo general, los vendedores de chips establecen margen de seguridad al voltaje para garantizar el funcionamiento de los mismos en el peor de los casos y en los peores escenarios ambientales. Mediante la experimentación en varias arquitecturas FPGA, confirmamos que hay un margen de seguridad de voltaje grande en varios de los componentes de la FPGA, que a su vez, nos ofrece ahorros de energía significativos. Sin embargo, un trabajar a un voltaje por debajo del margen de seguridad del voltaje puede causar problemas de confiabilidad a medida ya que aumenta el retardo del circuito y pueden comenzar a aparecer fallos. Caracterizamos ampliamente el comportamiento de estos fallos en términos de velocidad, ubicación, tipo, así como la sensibilidad a la temperatura ambiental, centrándonos principalmente en memorias internas de la FPGA, o Block RAM (BRAM). Comprender este comportamiento puede permitir el desarrollo de técnicas eficientes de mitigación y, a su vez, mejorar los diseños basados en FPGA para obtener ahorros en energía, una mayor confiabilidad y un mayor rendimiento. Finalmente, como caso de estudio, evaluamos un acelerador típico de Redes Neuronales basado en FPGA cuando el voltaje de la FPGA esta por debajo del nivel mínimo de seguridad. En consecuencia, los considerables ahorros de energía de la red neuronal vienen asociados con la pérdida de precisión de la red neuronal. Para obtener ahorros de energía sin una pérdida de precisión en la red neuronal por debajo del margen de seguridad del voltaje, proponemos una técnica que tiene en cuenta la aplicación, asi mismo, evaluamos el mecanismo integrado en las BRAMs de Error Correction Code (ECC). Por lo tanto, en primer lugar, desarrollamos una técnica de colocación de BRAM dependiente de la aplicación que se basa en el comportamiento determinista de las fallos cuando la FPGA funciona por debajo del margen de seguridad, y se mitigan estos fallos asignando los parámetros de la red neuronal más sensibles a producir fallos a los bloques BRAM que son relativamente más resistentes a los fallos. En segundo lugar, como técnica más general, aplicamos el ECC incorporado de los BRAM y observamos una capacidad de cobertura de fallos significativo gracias a las características de comportamiento de fallos, con una sobrecoste de consumo de energía insignificantePostprint (published version

A Demo of FPGA Aggressive Voltage Downscaling: Power and Reliability Tradeoffs

The power consumption of digital circuits, e.g., Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), is directly related to their operating supply voltages. On the other hand, usually, chip vendors introduce a conservative voltage guardband below the standard nominal level to ensure the correct functionality of the design in worst-case process and environmental scenarios. For instance, this voltage guardband is empirically measured to be 12%, 20%, and 16% of the nominal level in commercial CPUs [1], Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) [2], and Dynamic RAMs (DRAMs) [3], respectively. However, in many real-world applications, this guardband is extremely conservative and eliminating it can result in significant power savings without any overhead. Motivated by these studies, we aim to extend the undevolting technique to commercial FPGAs. Toward this goal, we will practically demonstrate the voltage guardband for a representative Xilinx FPGA, with a preliminary concentration on on-chip memories, or Block RAMs (BRAMs).We thank Pradip Bose, Alper Buyuktosunoglu, and Augusto Vega from IBM Watson for their contribution to this work. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme under the LEGaTO Project (www.legato-project.eu), grant agreement nº 780681.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

On the resilience of deep learning for reduced-voltage FPGAs

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are inherently computation-intensive and also power-hungry. Hardware accelerators such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are a promising solution that can satisfy these requirements for both embedded and High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems. In FPGAs, as well as CPUs and GPUs, aggressive voltage scaling below the nominal level is an effective technique for power dissipation minimization. Unfortunately, bit-flip faults start to appear as the voltage is scaled down closer to the transistor threshold due to timing issues, thus creating a resilience issue.This paper experimentally evaluates the resilience of the training phase of DNNs in the presence of voltage underscaling related faults of FPGAs, especially in on-chip memories. Toward this goal, we have experimentally evaluated the resilience of LeNet-5 and also a specially designed network for CIFAR-10 dataset with different activation functions of Rectified Linear Unit (Relu) and Hyperbolic Tangent (Tanh). We have found that modern FPGAs are robust enough in extremely low-voltage levels and that low-voltage related faults can be automatically masked within the training iterations, so there is no need for costly software-or hardware-oriented fault mitigation techniques like ECC. Approximately 10% more training iterations are needed to fill the gap in the accuracy. This observation is the result of the relatively low rate of undervolting faults, i.e., <0.1%, measured on real FPGA fabrics. We have also increased the fault rate significantly for the LeNet-5 network by randomly generated fault injection campaigns and observed that the training accuracy starts to degrade. When the fault rate increases, the network with Tanh activation function outperforms the one with Relu in terms of accuracy, e.g., when the fault rate is 30% the accuracy difference is 4.92%.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Unions Horizon 2020 Programme under the LEGaTO Project (www.legato-project.eu), grant agreement n 780681.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

MoRS: An approximate fault modelling framework for reduced-voltage SRAMs

On-chip memory (usually based on Static RAMs-SRAMs) are crucial components for various computing devices including heterogeneous devices, e.g, GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs to achieve high performance. Modern workloads such as Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) running on these heterogeneous fabrics are highly dependent on the on-chip memory architecture for efficient acceleration. Hence, improving the energy-efficiency of such memories directly leads to an efficient system. One of the common methods to save energy is undervolting i.e., supply voltage underscaling below the nominal level. Such systems can be safely undervolted without incurring faults down to a certain voltage limit. This safe range is also called voltage guardband. However, reducing voltage below the guardband level without decreasing frequency causes timing-based faults. In this paper, we propose MoRS, a framework that generates the first approximate undervolting fault model using real faults extracted from experimental undervolting studies on SRAMs to build the model. We inject the faults generated by MoRS into the on-chip memory of the DNN accelerator to evaluate the resilience of the system under the test. MoRS has the advantage of simplicity without any need for high-time overhead experiments while being accurate enough in comparison to a fully randomly-generated fault injection approach. We evaluate our experiment in popular DNN workloads by mapping weights to SRAMs and measure the accuracy difference between the output of the MoRS and the real data. Our results show that the maximum difference between real fault data and the output fault model of MoRS is 6.21%, whereas the maximum difference between real data and random fault injection model is 23.2%. In terms of average proximity to the real data, the output of MoRS outperforms the random fault injection approach by 3.21x.This work is partially funded by Open Transprecision Computing (OPRECOM) project, Summer of Code 2020.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft