Variable Point: A Number Format for Area- and Energy-Efficient Multiplication of High-Dynamic-Range Numbers
Seyed Hadi Mirfarshbafan Nicolas Filliol Oscar Castañeda Christoph Studer
作者信息
Abstract
Fixed-point number representation is commonly employed in digital VLSI designs that have stringent hardware efficiency constraints. However, fixed-point numbers cover a relatively small dynamic range for a given bitwidth. In contrast, floating-point numbers offer a larger dynamic range at the cost of increased hardware complexity. In this paper, we propose a novel number format called variable-point (VP). VP numbers cover a larger dynamic range than fixed-point numbers with similar bitwidth, without notably increasing hardware complexity -- this allows for a more efficient representation of signals with high dynamic range. To demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed VP number format, we consider a matrix-vector multiplication engine for spatial equalization in multi-antenna wireless communication systems involving high-dynamic-range signals. Through post-layout VLSI implementation results, we demonstrate that the proposed VP-based design achieves 20% and 10% area and power savings, respectively, compared to a fully optimized fixed-point design, without incurring any noticeable performance degradation.引用本文复制引用
Seyed Hadi Mirfarshbafan,Nicolas Filliol,Oscar Castañeda,Christoph Studer.Variable Point: A Number Format for Area- and Energy-Efficient Multiplication of High-Dynamic-Range Numbers[EB/OL].(2025-11-28)[2026-01-15].https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.00186.学科分类
微电子学、集成电路/无线通信
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