On the Resilience of RTL NN Accelerators: Fault Characterization and Mitigation

Machine Learning (ML) is making a strong resurgence in tune with the massive generation of unstructured data which in turn requires massive computational resources. Due to the inherently compute- and power-intensive structure of Neural Networks (NNs), hardware accelerators emerge as a promising solution. However, with technology node scaling below 10nm, hardware accelerators become more susceptible to faults, which in turn can impact the NN accuracy. In this paper, we study the resilience aspects of Register-Transfer Level (RTL) model of NN accelerators, in particular, fault characterization and mitigation. By following a High-Level Synthesis (HLS) approach, first, we characterize the vulnerability of various components of RTL NN. We observed that the severity of faults depends on both i) application-level specifications, i.e., NN data (inputs, weights, or intermediate), NN layers, and NN activation functions, and ii) architectural-level specifications, i.e., data representation model and the parallelism degree of the underlying accelerator. Second, motivated by characterization results, we present a low-overhead fault mitigation technique that can efficiently correct bit flips, by 47.3% better than state-of-the-art methods.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Aquatic Invertebrates of the Devereux Slough - 2018

In 2018, the hardscape construction of NCOS (North Campus Open Space), a restored wetland on the Northern border of COPR (Coal Oil Point Reserve), was completed, thus approximately doubling the overall size of the wetland and offering the rather unique opportunity of being able to compare the two side-by-side.  Basic water quality and aquatic invertebrate monitoring of both sites were undertaken to better understand the dynamics of how a newly constructed wetland developed into an established wetland.The surprising result of this first year of monitoring is that COPR and NCOS were more or less equivalent in species richness and abundance, with the Shannon-Wiener Index giving a slight nod to NCOS for more diversity and Evenness in the data.Four taxa are the most significant contributors to the total taxa observed – Copepods, Ostracods, Cladocera, and Corixidae.  Additionally, we found Chironomids, Ceratopogonidae, Ephydridae, and Nematodes in significant abundance.Sampling protocols were evaluated indicating that sampling in algae gives more than an order-of-magnitude greater abundance and diversity than in sampling in open water and that the Filtered Beaker method gives more precise species density information than the Sweep-Net method; when sampling at shallower depths where the Sweep-Net is not fully submerged.Additionally, the effect on other aquatic invertebrates of the use of VectoBac for mosquito abatement was looked at – indicating a minimum, if any, affect

Hybrid-cascade Coupled-Line Phasers for High-resolution Radio-Analog Signal Processing

A hybrid-cascade (HC) coupled-line phaser configuration is presented to synthesize enhanced group delay responses for high-resolution Radio-Analog Signal Processing (R-ASP). Using exact analytical transfer functions, the superiority of HC coupled-line phasers over conventional transversally cascaded C-section phasers is demonstrated and verified using full-wave simulations.Comment: 2 pages, 5 figure

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

What Would Jesus Do? Create a Written Language

Christianity has made its way through time and space, affecting the progression and civilizations of many cultures all throughout the world. One less commonly known impact of Christianity is its role in the creation of the written language Cyrillic, or more importantly the precursor to Cyrillic, Glagolitic. In this paper, I will discuss the effect of Christianity on the language creating process of Cyril and Methodius. To properly examine this, I will explain the differences in the spreading of Western Christianity (better known as modern day Catholicism) and Eastern Christianity (better known as modern day Orthodox). I will also explain who Cyril and Methodius were, and the role that the church played in their decision to create a written language for Slavic civilizations that up until that point did not have one. Finally, I will explore the controversy that ensued the creation of Glagolitic. These points will be necessary in justifying that Christianity was the reason for the creation of the Slavic written language and its successor Cyrillic

The characterization of a novel C-type lectin-like receptor, CLEC9A

Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-161)

CULTURAL CORNERS AND ASIAN CONTEXTS

Globalization in the way it has often been conceived, is onesided.It is often thought of as the influence of the West upon the restof the world. But in the very early exchanges – the Silk Road – thiswas a two-way relationship. How can we conceive of globalization,not as domination, but as exchange between local cultures? In thispaper I propose to investigate idea of the “corners” as a new modelof globalization