Exploring a Bayesian Optimization Framework Compatible with Digital Standard Flow for Soft-Error-Tolerant Circuit

Abstract

Soft error is a major reliability concern in advanced technology nodes. Although mitigating Soft Error Rate (SER) will inevitably sacrifice area and power, few studies paid attention to optimization methods to explore trade-offs between area, power and SER. This paper proposes an optimization framework based on Bayesian approach for soft-error-tolerant circuit design. It comprises two steps:1) data preprocessing and 2) Bayesian optimization. In the preprocessing step, a strategy incorporating k-means algorithm and a novel sequencing algorithm is used to cluster Flip-Flops (FFs) with similar SER in order to reduce the dimensionality for the subsequent step. Bayesian Neural Network (BNN) is the applied surrogate model for acquiring the posterior distribution of three design metrics, while the Lower confidence bound (LCB) functions are employed as acquisition functions to select the next point based on BNN when optimizing. Finally, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is used to search the Pareto Optimal Front (POF) solutions of three LCB functions. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed framework has a 1.4x improvement in accuracy and a 70% reduction in SER with acceptable increases in power and area.