Information Representation and Computation in the Time Domain

随着半导体技术的关键尺寸继续扩展到纳米级，器件速度显着提高，电源电压显着降低，而阈值电压却没有大幅降低。技术扩展和相关的电源电压降低导致数字ic的功耗降低，同时仍然允许时钟速率增加。对于模拟前端电路，电源缩放正成为一个基本的限制。这些电路在模拟物理世界和数字信号处理体系结构之间提供了不可或缺的接口。由于纳米级半导体中功率的急剧降低，导致信号幅度的降低，导致模拟电路的精度大大降低。对于1~V以下的端到端信号处理，需要一种新颖的方法。与其被逐渐消失的电压净空所限制，不如利用惊人的设备速度的出现。范式转换是有序的——应该采用时域编码而不是在幅度域中编码信息。该研究为时域信息的表示和计算提供了新的理论基础。主要研究三个主题：(i)时域信息表示和信号恢复；（ii）时域计算；（iii）实时算法和鲁棒性。该研究将一维时间相关信号的表示扩展到二维和三维时空信号。通过增加一个或两个空间维度，受内耳和视网膜启发的语音和视频处理模型，可以探索两个关键的自然感觉系统。该项目的智力价值在于设计了一种独特的时域计算方法，该方法受到自然感官系统中产生的模型的启发，并建立在前沿数学建模的坚实理论基础上。拟议活动的更广泛影响包括(i)探索神经科学和纳米技术交叉领域的巨大潜力，以及（ii）跨学科本科顶点实验室项目和研究生水平课程。努力程度===============在建议的支持水平下，项目负责人将尽一切努力满足项目的原始范围和努力程度。

As the critical dimensions in semiconductor technologies continue to scale into the nanoscale regime, device speeds are increasing significantly, the supply voltage is decreasing very significantly while the threshold voltage is not being reduced as aggressively. Technology scaling and the associated reduction of the supply voltageleads to a reduction of power consumption for digital ICs while still allowing the clock rate to increase. For analog front-end circuits power supply scaling is becoming a fundamental limitation. These circuits provide the indispensable interface between the analog physical world and the digital signal processing architecture. The reduction of the signal amplitude, due to drastically lower power supplies in nanoscale semiconductors, results in a very significant reduction in the accuracy of the analog circuits. A novel approach is needed for end-to-end signal processing below 1~V. Rather than being limited by the disappearing voltage headroom, the emergence of phenomenal devicespeeds has to be used. A paradigm shift is in order - instead of encoding information in the amplitude domain, time domain encoding should be employed.The research investigates a new theoretical foundation for the representation and computation of information in the time domain. Three main research themes are studied:(i) Information Representation and Signal Recovery in the Time Domain,(ii) Computation in the Time Domain, and(iii) Real-Time Algorithms and Robustness.The research extends the representation of one dimensional time dependentsignals to two and three dimensional space-time signals. By adding one or two spatialdimensions, models of speech and video processing inspired by the inner ear and the retina, two of the key natural sensory systems can be explored. The intellectual merit of this project is in devising an unique approach for computation in the time domain that is inspired by models arising in natural sensory systems and is established on soundtheoretical foundations of cutting edge mathematical modeling. The broader impacts of the proposed activity include (i) an exploration of the vast potential in the crossroads of neuroscience and nanotechnology, and (ii) an interdisciplinary undergraduate capstone lab project and a graduate level course.LEVEL OF EFFORT===============At the recommended level of support, the PI will make every effort to meet the originalscope and level of effort of the project.