A Mixed-Signal VLSI Architecture Design for ANN Based on MOS-Conductance Memory
摘要
In-memory computing (IMC) has emerged as a promising paradigm for accelerating neural network operations by performing computation directly within memory. However, limited foundry support, high energy cost of on-chip learning, and endurance issues with emerging devices such as resistive RAM and floating-gate memories restrict their broader applicability in rapid artificial neural network (ANN) prototyping. In this context, this work proposes a mixed-signal analog computing approach for ANN synaptic operations, using a programmable conductive memory (G-RAM) in a differential crossbar array built with MOSFETs. Synaptic operations are performed using G-RAM-based analog voltage multipliers with a mixed-signal activation unit in the output layer. The architecture supports on-chip learning with self-trainable weights. Rigorous SPICE simulation has shown that it can achieve robust functionality in a 4-4-3-1 multilayer perceptron (MLP) for the XOR problem with precision of