A Survey of Computation-Driven Data Encoding

Abstract

Although the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) has been the dominant device for modern very-large scale integration (VLSI) circuits for more than six decades, with the dawning of a post-Moore era, researchers are trying to find replacements. A foundation of modern digital computing is the encoding of digital values through a binary radix representation. However, as we enter into the post-Moore era, the challenges of increasing power density, signal noise, and device unreliability raise the question of whether this basic way of encoding data is still the best choice, particularly with novel electronic devices. Prior work has shown that binary radix encoding has some disadvantages. We argue that it is crucial to rethink the necessity of using this representation in the post-Moore era. In this paper, we review some recent development on computation-driven data encoding. We begin with stochastic encoding, a representation proposed a long time ago, discussing both its advantages and disadvantages. Then, we review several recent breakthroughs with variations of stochastic encoding that mitigate many of its disadvantages. Finally, we conclude the paper by extrapolating future directions for effective computation-driven data encoding.