ENAP: An efficient number-aware pruning framework for design space exploration of approximate configurations

Approximate computing has emerged as a new computing architecture paradigm that trades off necessary numerical accuracy for performance. Various approximation operation units such as adders and multipliers have been created and provide the basis for improving system efficiency, but it is clear, that a design space exploration (DSE) is needed if improved performance is to be systematically achieved. The challenge is to determine a suitable configuration among approximation units with different error characteristics to ensure a minimization of resources while not exceeding user-defined error constraints. In this paper, we propose the efficient number-aware pruning (ENAP) technique that can compress the search space size. Using common fault-tolerant applications, we demonstrate a compression rate up to 0.0008%, meaning that 99.9992% of invalid designs can remain unsearched. An improved genetic algorithm (GA) is subsequently proposed to improve ENAP, allowing the creation of the optimal configuration in only 2 to 3 iterations, thereby greatly improving search efficiency compared to the initial 9 iterations. We integrate these two approaches into the proposed framework, demonstrating how we can achieve better exploration results compared to state-of-the-artwork.