28nm chip system solves complex network problems very quickly
A 28nm 27,648-Spin Multichip Digital Ising Accelerator with Pegasus Connectivity
Hardware ArchitectureEmerging Technologies
Summary
Solving large network problems quickly is a challenge many computers face. The authors describe a system made of four chips working together with 27,648 tiny units called spins that can represent complex connections. They designed the system to update these spins very fast and use special connectivity that is stronger than past designs. This lets their computer accurately solve big problems involving tens of thousands of nodes in just a few microseconds. Their approach could help with optimization tasks and probabilistic calculations.
Ising modeldigital acceleratorspinmultichip systemPegasus connectivityMaxCut problemoptimizationtime-multiplexingannealingSRAM
Authors
Tong Wu, Atharva Raut, Ian Khor, Ziyad Alswaidan, Ting-Yu Lee, Hongchang Kuang, Navid Anjum Aadit, Anand Raju, Dhruv Chinmay, Siddharth Das, Ken Mai, Kerem Camsari, Tathagata Srimani
Abstract
We present a 28nm digital Ising accelerator with 27,648 spins across four chips. A time-multiplexed spin-update array with local SRAM and scheduled interchip transfers delivers 41.5G updates/s at 1.2pJ/update. Degree-15 Pegasus connectivity and 10b coefficients increase native connectivity and precision over degree-8, 5b multichip annealers. Programmable couplings support optimization and probabilistic logic, with a four-chip planted-MaxCut trace reaching the solution for 27,069 nodes in 3.3$μ$s.