RRAM-based CAM combined with time-domain circuits for hyperdimensional computing

Content addressable memory (CAM) for search and match operations demands high speed and low power for near real-time decision-making across many critical domains. Resistive RAM (RRAM)-based in-memory computing has high potential in realizing an efficient static CAM for artificial intelligence tasks, especially on resource-constrained platforms. This paper presents an XNOR-based RRAM-CAM with a time-domain analog adder for efficient winning class computation. The CAM compares two operands, one voltage and the second one resistance, and outputs a voltage proportional to the similarity between the input query and the pre-stored patterns. Processing the summation of the output similarity voltages in the time-domain helps avoid voltage saturation, variation, and noise dominating the analog voltage-based computing. After that, to determine the winning class among the multiple classes, a digital realization is utilized to consider the class with the longest pulse width as the winning class. As a demonstrator, hyperdimensional computing for efficient MNIST classification is considered. The proposed design uses 65 nm CMOS foundry technology and realistic data for RRAM with total area of 0.0077 mm2, consumes 13.6 pJ of energy per 1 k query within 10 ns clock cycle. It shows a reduction of ~ 31 × in area and ~ 3 × in energy consumption compared to fully digital ASIC implementation using 65 nm foundry technology. The proposed design exhibits a remarkable reduction in area and energy compared to two of the state-of-the-art RRAM designs.