2 research outputs found
Probabilistic Compute-in-Memory Design For Efficient Markov Chain Monte Carlo Sampling
Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is a widely used sampling method in modern
artificial intelligence and probabilistic computing systems. It involves
repetitive random number generations and thus often dominates the latency of
probabilistic model computing. Hence, we propose a compute-in-memory (CIM)
based MCMC design as a hardware acceleration solution. This work investigates
SRAM bitcell stochasticity and proposes a novel ``pseudo-read'' operation,
based on which we offer a block-wise random number generation circuit scheme
for fast random number generation. Moreover, this work proposes a novel
multi-stage exclusive-OR gate (MSXOR) design method to generate strictly
uniformly distributed random numbers. The probability error deviating from a
uniform distribution is suppressed under . Also, this work presents a
novel in-memory copy circuit scheme to realize data copy inside a CIM
sub-array, significantly reducing the use of R/W circuits for power saving.
Evaluated in a commercial 28-nm process development kit, this CIM-based MCMC
design generates 4-bit32-bit samples with an energy efficiency of
~pJ/sample and high throughput of up to M~samples/s. Compared to
conventional processors, the overall energy efficiency improves
to times