BiKA: Kolmogorov-Arnold-Network-inspired Ultra Lightweight Neural Network Hardware Accelerator
Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/Report › Conference contribution › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Lightweight neural network accelerators are essential for edge devices with limited resources and power constraints. While quantization and binarization can efficiently reduce hardware cost, they still rely on the conventional Artificial Neural Network (ANN) computation pattern. The recently proposed Kolmogorov-Arnold Network (KAN) presents a novel network paradigm built on learnable nonlinear functions. However, it is computationally expensive for hardware deployment. Inspired by KAN, we propose BiKA, a multiply-free architecture that replaces nonlinear functions with binary, learnable thresholds, introducing an extremely lightweight computational pattern that requires only comparators and accumulators. Our FPGA prototype on Ultra96-V2 shows that BiKA reduces hardware resource usage by 27.73% and 51.54% compared with binarized and quantized neural network systolic array accelerators, while maintaining competitive accuracy. BiKA provides a promising direction for hardware-friendly neural network design on edge devices.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 27th International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design, ISQED 2026 |
| Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
| Pages | 1-9 |
| ISBN (electronic) | 979-8-3315-8361-3 |
| ISBN (print) | 979-8-3315-8362-0 |
| Publication status | Published - 28 May 2026 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
Publication series
| Series | IEEE International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design |
|---|---|
| ISSN | 1948-3287 |
Conference
| Title | 27th International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | ISQED 2026 |
| Conference number | 27 |
| Duration | 8 - 10 April 2026 |
| Website | |
| Location | Seven Hills Conference Center |
| City | San Francisco |
| Country | United States of America |