Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling for neuromorphic many-core systems

Research output: Contribution to book/conference proceedings/anthology/reportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

We present a dynamic voltage and frequency scaling technique within SoCs for per-core power management: the architecture allows for individual, self triggered performance-level scaling of the processing elements (PEs) within less than 100ns. This technique enables each core to adjust its local supply voltage and frequency depending on its current computational load. A test chip has been implemented in 28nm CMOS technology, as prototype of the SpiNNaker2 neuromorphic many core system, containing 4 PEs which are operational within the range of 1.1V down to 0.7V at frequencies from 666MHz down to 100MHz; the effectiveness of the power management technique is demonstrated using a standard benchmark from the application domain. The particular domain area of this application specific processor is real-time neuromorphics. Using a standard benchmark - the synfire chain - we show that the total power consumption can be reduced by 45%, with 85% baseline power reduction and a 30% reduction of energy per neuron and synapse computation, all while maintaining biological real-time operation.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2017 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS)
Place of PublicationBaltimore
PublisherIEEE Xplore
ISBN (electronic)978-1-4673-6853-7
ISBN (print)978-1-5090-1427-9
Publication statusPublished - 25 Sept 2017
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesIEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS)
ISSN0271-4302

Conference

TitleIEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems 2017
Abbreviated titleISCAS 2017
Conference number50
Duration28 - 31 May 2017
CityBaltimore
CountryUnited States of America

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-6286-5064/work/142240637

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • DVFS, MPSoC, neuromorphic computing, power management, SpiNNaker2, synfire chain