ALSRAC: Approximate Logic Synthesis by Resubstitution with Approximate Care Set

Abstract

Approximate computing is an emerging design technique for error-resilient applications. It improves circuit area, power, and delay at the cost of introducing some errors. Approximate logic synthesis (ALS) is an automatic process to produce approximate circuits. This paper proposes approximate resubstitution with approximate care set and uses it to build a simulation-based ALS flow. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method saves 7%–18% area compared to state-of-the-art methods. The code of ALSRAC is made open-source.