E2CDA: Type I: Probabilistic Spin Logic for Low-Energy Boolean and Non-Boolean Computing

硬件和软件的各种组件结合在一起，使围绕智能手机等的电子革命成为可能。为了进一步扩展我们的能力，进入个人用户和云之间更全面联网的新时代，以及解决即使使用当今的计算机也无法解决的复杂程度的问题，需要将数据处理的前沿推向超越“传统”电子技术所能实现的范围。一种方法是进一步改进硬件。然而，后者历来主要致力于使设备变得更小，从而获得更紧凑但非常耗电的电子产品的好处。当前的项目围绕一种新颖的设备展开，该设备使用电子自旋而不是电子电荷进行信息处理，并有望以远小于传统技术的功耗水平实现上述目标。同时，该项目旨在通过我们称之为“原子到系统”的概念将教育和传播提升到新的水平。新一代工程师需要不同于以前所学的技能和知识库。因此，该项目的首要任务是使它们背后的模型和想法在整个科学和工程领域都易于使用。人们对一种基于概率推理的根本不同形式的类脑逻辑越来越感兴趣，这种逻辑在处理不断增加的“大数据”量所带来的搜索和识别问题时更加有效和节能。概率逻辑目前是通过在确定性计算平台上运行的软件算法来实现的。其目标是使用不稳定的多铁性材料为新的 P（随机性）计算平台奠定基础，多铁性材料是一种结合了不同电气、机械和磁性特性的人造材料组合。与量子计算机不同，P-计算机应该在室温下稳定运行，同时提供“量子并行性”的某些方面，以促进难题的解决。该团队将致力于这种新颖的概率计算理念的材料、设备和电路开发。专家组将同时探索与新颖材料特性表征、各种结构参数的影响和建筑方面相关的技术工作。

Various components of hardware and software have come together to make this electronic revolution surrounding smartphones and the like possible. To further expand our capabilities, to enter a new era of even more comprehensive networking between individual users and the cloud, as well as to solve problems of a complexity level that cannot be tackled even with today's computers, there is the need to push the frontiers of data processing beyond anything that can be achieved through "conventional" electronics. One approach is to improve the hardware further. However the latter has been historically mainly focused on making devices ever smaller, thus gaining the benefit of a more compact but very power hungry electronics. The current project revolves around a novel device that uses electron spins rather than electron charges for information processing, and holds the promise to achieve the above mentioned goals at a power consumption level that is far smaller than what can be envisioned with conventional technologies. At the same time the project aims at a new level of education and dissemination through the concept that we call "atoms to systems". A new generation of engineers requires skill sets and a knowledge base that is different from what was learned previously. A high priority of the project is thus to make the models and ideas that underlie them accessible across science and engineering.There is increasing interest in a fundamentally different form of brain-like logic based on probabilistic inference that is far more effective and energy efficient in dealing with the problems of search and recognition posed by the ever increasing amounts of "big data". Probabilistic logic is currently implemented with software algorithms that run on a deterministic computing platform. The goal is to lay the foundation for a new P(robabilistic)-computing platform using unstable multiferroics, a manmade material combination that combines distinct electrical, mechanical and magnetic properties. Unlike quantum computers, P-computers should operate robustly at room temperature, while providing some aspects of the "quantum parallelism" that facilitates the solution of hard problems. The team will work on the material, device and circuit development of this novel probabilistic computing idea. Technical work related to the characterization of novel material properties, the impact of various structural parameters and architectural aspects will all be explored in parallel by the group of experts.