Deep-DFR: A Memristive Deep Delayed Feedback Reservoir Computing System with Hybrid Neural Network Topology

Deep neural networks (DNNs), the brain-like machine learning architecture, have gained immense success in data-extensive applications. In this work, a hybrid structured deep delayed feedback reservoir (Deep-DFR) computing model is proposed and fabricated. Our Deep-DFR employs memristive synapses working in a hierarchical information processing fashion with DFR modules as the readout layer, leading our proposed deep learning structure to be both depth-in-space and depth-in-time. Our fabricated prototype along with experimental results demonstrate its high energy efficiency with low hardware implementation cost. With applications on the image classification, MNIST and SVHN, our Deep-DFR yields a 1.26~7.69X reduction on the testing error compared to state-of-the-art DNN designs.