LSHIM: Low-Power and Small-Area Inexact Multiplier for High-Speed Error-Resilient Applications

Abstract

Numerical computations in various applications can often tolerate a small degree of error. In fields such as data mining, encoding algorithms, image processing, machine learning, and signal processing where error resilience is crucial approximate computing can effectively replace precise computing to minimize circuit delay and power consumption. In these contexts, a certain level of error is permissible. Multiplication, a fundamental arithmetic operation in computer systems, often leads to increased circuit delay, power usage, and area occupation when performed accurately by multipliers, which are key components in these applications. Thus, developing an optimal multiplier represents a significant advantage for inexact computing systems. In this paper, we introduce a novel approximate multiplier based on the Mitchell algorithm. The proposed design has been implemented using the Cadence software environment with the TSMC 45nm standard-cell library and a supply voltage of 1.1V. Simulation results demonstrate an average reduction of 31.7% in area, 46.8% in power consumption, and 36.1% in circuit delay compared to previous works. The mean relative error distance (MRED) for the proposed method is recorded at 2.6%.