Applying a Molecular Device to Stochastic Computing Operation for a Hardware AI System Design

Abstract

Stochastic computing (SC) has attracted much attention of researchers for decades and plays an important role in the field of information science. The relative large cost on area and power of stochastic number generators (SNGs) greatly offset the advantage of SC for hardware implementation. In this paper, we proposed a scheme replacing the SNG's function during weight updating process by a molecular device, which can spontaneously generate random spikes and noise [1]. A control electrode (gate electrode) is added to previous electron-cascading model by simulation, the frequency of charges collected on collector electrode that higher than threshold are related to the number of times voltage is applied on this gate electrode. Specifically, as the voltage applied again and again, the frequency may increase or decrease gradually. This is basically consistent with the basic principle of weight update. After some parameter adjustment and model optimization, we believe that this molecular device is expected to replace the part of network weight update in the hardware SC circuit.