On the selection of arithmetic unit structure in voltage overscaled soft digital signal processing

ABSTRACT

A soft digital signal processing (DSP) design paradigm has been recently proposed to reduce the energy consumption of DSP systems through voltage overscaling. This paper shows that the selection of arithmetic unit structure can be an important and non-trivial issue in soft DSP system design. We present an optimal formulation and propose sub-optimal low-complexity approximations for selecting the appropriate arithmetic unit structure in voltage overscaled signal processing systems. We further present a case study on choosing the appropriate MAC (multiply-accumulate) structure in voltage overscaled FIR (finite impulse response) filter.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.2 ARITHMETIC AND LOGIC STRUCTURES
      B.2.4 High-speed Arithmetic
          Subjects: Cost/performance

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design

Keywords:
low power, signal processing, voltage overscaling