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

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.