Time: Thursday, October 11th, 14:00
Speaker: Tara HAMILTON, Western Sydney University
In this tutorial we will explore two aspects of Stochastic Computing Hardware: Stochastic Electronics and Stochastic Computation. Stochastic Electronics is based on the idea that “noise” (in all its forms) can be used constructively to improve computational performance in “brain-like” processors. Here I will show several examples of how stochasticity can enhance performance while also reducing power consumption and circuit footprint. The other idea, Stochastic Computation, dates back to the 1960s and provides an alternative to conventional binary representations of information in digital systems. Stochastic computation can significantly decrease the computational cost of traditionally high-cost digital operations such as multiplication. Both stochastic electronics and stochastic computation are related ideas and both are based on the probabilistic nature of neural processing. Throughout this tutorial I will discuss how these ideas can (and have) been leveraged by Spintronics.