Functional Demonstration of a Memristive Arithmetic Logic Unit (MemALU) for In‐Memory Computing

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 29; no. 49
• Main Authors: Cheng, Long, Li, Yi, Yin, Kang‐Sheng, Hu, Si‐Yu, Su, Yu‐Ting, Jin, Miao‐Miao, Wang, Zhuo‐Rui, Chang, Ting‐Chang, Miao, Xiang‐Shui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.12.2019
• Subjects: Arithmetic and logic units; arithmetic computing; Boolean algebra; Boolean functions; Computer memory; crossbar; Edge computing; Energy management; Field programmable gate arrays; in‐memory computing; Logic; Materials science; Memristors; Multiplication; Power management; stateful logic; Subtraction
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201905660

The development of in‐memory computing has opened up possibilities to build next‐generation non‐von‐Neumann computing architecture. Implementation of logic functions within the memristors can significantly improve the energy efficiency and alleviate the bandwidth congestion issue. In this work, the demonstration of arithmetic logic unit functions is presented in a memristive crossbar with implemented non‐volatile Boolean logic and arithmetic computing. For logic implementation, a standard operating voltage mode is proposed for executing reconfigurable stateful IMP, destructive OR, NOR, and non‐destructive OR logic on both the word and bit lines. No additional voltages are needed beyond “VP” and its negative component. With these basic logic functions, other Boolean functions are constructed within five devices in at most five steps. For arithmetic computing, the fundamental functions including an n‐bit full adder with high parallelism as well as efficient increment, decrement, and shift operations are demonstrated. Other arithmetic blocks, such as subtraction, multiplication, and division are further designed. This work provides solid evidence that memristors can be used as the building block for in‐memory computing, targeting various low‐power edge computing applications. In‐memory computation tasks of a memristive arithmetic logic unit are demonstrated based on stateful logic in a memristive crossbar. Highly reconfigurable and parallel operations are designed with simplified instructions, including Boolean logic, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, increment, decrement, and shift operations. The energy efficiency and short latency prove its advance for future in‐memory computing applications.