Project description
Deep neural networks improved by an in-memory computing accelerator
With the Internet of things (IoT), computing and electronics are technologies assuming an ever-increasing role in everyday life; many thus seek to provide improvements and advances to these fields. Deep neural networks, a technology inspired by biological neural networks and comprised of parallel processing units dubbed neurons that are connected by plastic synapses, has recently seen much use in cloud data centres as well as several other IoT services. Unfortunately, it is still inefficient due to the need to process millions of synaptic weight values. The EU-funded MEMFLUX project will develop an in-memory computing accelerator prototype, tailored for ultra-low latency and ultra-low-power deep neural network inference.
Objective
Deep neural networks (DNNs), loosely inspired by biological neural networks, consist of parallel processing units called neurons interconnected by plastic synapses. By tuning the weights of these interconnections, these networks are able to perform certain cognitive tasks remarkably well. DNNs are being deployed all the way from cloud data centers to edge servers and even end devices and is projected to be a tens of billion Euro-market just for semiconductor companies in the next few years. There is a significant effort towards the design of custom ASICs based on reduced precision arithmetic and highly optimized dataflow. However, one of the primary reasons for the inefficiency, namely the need to shuttle millions of synaptic weight values between the memory and processing units, remains unaddressed. In-memory computing is an emerging computing paradigm that addresses this challenge of processor-memory dichotomy. For example, a computational memory unit with resistive memory (memristive) devices organized in a crossbar configuration is capable of performing matrix-vector multiply operations in place by exploiting the Kirchhoff’s circuits laws. Moreover, the computational time complexity reduces to O(1). The goal of this project is to prototype such an in-memory computing accelerator for ultra-low latency, ultra-low power DNN inference.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics arithmetics
- natural sciences physical sciences electromagnetism and electronics semiconductivity
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence machine learning deep learning
- social sciences law
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence computational intelligence
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-PoC
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
8803 RUESCHLIKON
Switzerland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.