Clocked and event-driven redundant adjustable precision computing

Connected mobile applications, known as the Internet of Things (IoT), require deploying extensive efforts to optimize power consumption and to improve the system performance at the same time. One way to reach this goal is based on sacrificing the computing precision by adopting different approximate computing methodologies for boosting system performance and reducing the power consumption. In this work, Adjustable Precision Computing (APC) based on redundant and on-line arithmetic operators is introduced. It provides the possibility to adapt the computing precision at will, depending on the performance and/or power requirements of the application. The proposed approach supplies an efficient power and area optimized solution with higher performance and without compromising the computing precision. Indeed, the APC innovative architecture allows users to dynamically modify the system computation precision, as required. The adjudication of asynchronous control, instead of the traditional synchronous clocking, enhances even more the impact of the APC. The results of both synchronous and asynchronous implementation examples are presented, showing the efficiency of the APC approach.