Unconventional Processing of Signals for Intelligent Data Exploitation (UPSIDE)
Abstract
The Unconventional Processing of Signals for Intelligent Data Exploitation (UPSIDE) program will address the open problems facing real-time Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems and other power-constrained data-intensive applications. The objective of the UPSIDE program is to create a high-level, non-Boolean computational model and map it directly to the unique functional properties of new emerging devices to achieve significant increases in power efficiency and performance. The UPSIDE program will create a new generation of computing structures that will, in turn, enable revolutionary advances in ISR processing, particularly for DoD applications of embedded, real-time sensor data analysis. Boolean data representations are inherently power-inefficient for many datasets, particularly those produced by noisy analog real-time sensors. The UPSIDE program will establish an unconventional, non-Boolean, computing paradigm to enable new and needed capabilities in the area of sensor data analysis. UPSIDE intends to implement this new computing paradigm in the form of a specialized hardware component termed the inference module (IM). An IM is a computational abstraction, which performs a sophisticated pattern match that maps very efficiently to analog complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuits and emerging devices. An IM can leverage the physics of an emerging device to compute a pattern match directly. The IM will be first developed through simulation, and then implemented using mixed-signal CMOS technology, as well as using state of the art emerging (non-CMOS) devices. Throughout the program, the inference module will be benchmarked using a DoD-relevant image processing pipeline, to verify gains in both computing throughput and power efficiency. The result will be computing infrastructures and functional implementations that demonstrate three orders of magnitude improvement in processing speed and four orders of magnitude improvement in power efficiency. These gains will constitute a disruptive new level of embedded computational efficiency for future real-time sensor systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2016
- Source ID
- 68dce7d2de3d3c0532cdbb29502ac34b