Considering the alternatives in low-power design

Abstract

The authors discuss employing alternative number systems to reduce power dissipation in portable devices and high-performance systems. They focus on two alternative number systems that are quite different from the conventional linear number representations, namely the logarithmic number system (LNS) and the residue number system (RNS). Both have recently attracted the interest of researchers for their low-power properties. The authors address aspects of the conventional arithmetic representations, the impact of logarithmic arithmetic on power dissipation, and discuss the low-power aspects of residue arithmetic.