Papers for

hardware designers

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Topology restricts power of small efficient computer circuits

Topology inside NC$^1$

Abstract: We show that ACC$^0$ is precisely what can be computed with constant-width circuits of polynomial size and polylogarithmic genus. This extends a characterization given by Hansen, showing that planar constant-width circuits also characterize ACC$^0$. Thus polylogarithmic genus provides no additional computational power in this model. We consider other generalizations of planarity, including crossing number and thickness. We show that constant-width circuits of polynomial size and thickness two already suffice to capture all of NC$^1$.

Thu 10 SeptComputational Complexity
The gist
This work explores how the shape or 'layout' of computer circuits affects what they can compute efficiently. The authors show that certain complex circuits constrained to a limited 'width' and organized with a shape close to flat (planar or with low 'genus') can only solve problems within a specific class called ACC0. Extending this, they find that allowing slightly more complex shapes (like thickness two) enables solving a larger class called NC1. This helps us understand the limits and possibilities for designing circuits with certain physical or logical layout restrictions.
Open 2609.11822v1

Efficient memory safety for multicore processors reducing wasted space

CHERI-D Reincarnate: efficient multicore CHERI temporal memory safety through allocation reincarnation (draft version)

Abstract: We propose CHERI-D Reincarnate (Reinc), an architectural extension to CHERI for scalable and efficient temporal memory safety. Prior work CHERI-D has a finite-width generation ID stored at a fixed location, requiring an object to be quarantined when its ID is exhausted. Reinc further provides use-after-free mitigation while permitting immediate freed memory reuse for objects through allocation reincarnation: rather than quarantining an allocation slot upon ID exhaustion, Reinc dynamically assigns a new ID to that slot when its current ID is exhausted. Exhausted IDs are quarantined and later reclaimed, while the underlying memory remains available for immediate reuse. By quarantining IDs rather than memory, Reinc enables continuous reuse of memory in the common case, substantially reducing both memory-sweep frequency and quarantine memory overhead. Reinc further introduces coherent ID caching while retaining a fully decentralized ID organization. Temporal metadata remains colocated with the memory it protects, preserving locality while avoiding centralized metadata structures. To support multicore execution, Reinc connects physical coherence events to the virtually addressed ObjID buffer using lightweight reverse-map and filter-based mechanisms. We implement Reinc as a hardware-software co-design spanning CHERI-Toooba (superscalar FPGA softcore), QEMU, LLVM/Clang and CheriBSD. Across our evaluated workloads, Reinc substantially reduces memory-sweep frequency and memory quarantine while incurring low performance and hardware overhead.

Thu 10 SeptHardware ArchitectureCryptography and Security
The gist
Programs sometimes make mistakes by using memory after they have freed it, which can cause crashes or security problems. The authors propose a system called Reinc that fixes this by reusing memory safely without waiting, keeping track of memory use in a smart way. Unlike older methods that had to hold onto freed memory for a long time, Reinc recycles it right away, which saves space and work. It works well even when many processor cores are running at once and they tested it with low overhead.
Open 2609.11590v1

How signal shape changes with amplitude limits in noisy channels

On the Evolution of the Capacity-Achieving Input Support for the Amplitude-Constrained AWGN Channel

Abstract: We consider an additive white Gaussian noise channel subject to a peak-amplitude constraint and study how the support of the capacity-achieving input distribution (CAID) evolves as the amplitude constraint $A$ varies. Although the CAID is known to be unique, symmetric, discrete, and finitely supported, the structure of its support transitions has remained largely unresolved. We show that the origin is the only possible degenerate support point and the only possible inactive contact point of the KKT function. We then establish continuity properties of the optimal distribution and the KKT function and prove that every nonzero support point is locally stable: under small changes in $A$, it persists as a unique nearby atom whose location and probability mass vary continuously. Combining these results, we prove that, locally, the support cardinality at a nearby amplitude is either unchanged or larger by one and that any such increase can occur only at the origin. Consequently, all local changes in support cardinality are confined to the origin: locally, the only possible transition mechanisms are the appearance or disappearance of the point at the origin and the splitting or merging of the origin into a symmetric pair.

Wed 9 SeptInformation Theory
The gist
This paper looks at how the best way to send a signal changes when you have a strict limit on its peak strength, in a noisy communication channel. The authors found that the possible signal points mostly stay stable as the allowed peak changes, except for one special point at zero amplitude that can appear, disappear, or split. This helps explain exactly how the signal design changes as the amplitude limit varies, improving understanding of optimal communication under strict limits.
Open 2609.10039v1

Near-memory scheduler improves session memory use for language model agents

UNISON: A Co-Designed Near-Memory Scheduler of Session KV Residency for LLM Agents

Abstract: Large language models are increasingly composed into agent loops that plan, call tools, and resume the same task after each action. These loops press a shared memory hierarchy harder than conventional multi-turn chat, because they hold a growing key-value (KV) prefix across tool waits and place many sessions on one SRAM/HBM pool, so that eviction and hierarchical placement become a session-level efficiency problem orthogonal to compute-mode optimization. Existing proxies based on recency, timeout, or identity miss the mechanism information of the loop and therefore treat a live wait as a cold, discardable unit. We present Unified Native Inter-turn Session Orchestration Nexus (UNISON), an event-driven near-memory scheduler in which Survival-Penalty Eviction for Agent Return-gap (SPEAR) and Tiering in Idle-window DMA Events (TIDE) share one live ranking. SPEAR selects who leaves from a gap average and a turn-indexed hazard, while TIDE spends the observed wait as a DMA budget for who sits in the fast tier. On coding and general-mission benchmarks with three model families, totaling 1,415 sessions and 33,596 turns, the joint policy is the best non-oracle entry on every trace, raising hit rate by 0.3% to 23.1%, reducing AMAT by 22% to 51%, and lowering TTFT by 58% to 89% on long-horizon traces. A structural necessity analysis shows that the unified near-memory design cannot be decomposed into independent IPs or realized in software without re-introducing documented failure modes. The 28-nm CMOS scheduling core occupies 0.169 mm^2 at 13.6 mW and 150 MHz, a negligible overhead relative to the KV hierarchy it manages, reproducing the floating-point ranking at Kendall tau exceeding 0.998.

Wed 9 SeptHardware Architecture
The gist
When computer programs use large language models to complete tasks, they often have to remember lots of information between steps. This can slow things down because the memory used to store this information runs out or gets mixed up. The authors created a new memory manager called UNISON that smartly decides what information to keep or move near the processor, speeding up task completion. Their system works better than previous methods, reducing delays and improving how often needed information is readily available.
Open 2609.09643v1