Stochastic computation using deterministic bit streams

A method of operating an integrated circuit comprising a computational unit, the method comprising:

• receiving, at the computational unit, a first set of data bits encoding a first numerical value and a second set of data bits encoding a second numerical value;
• convolving, by a convolver, a first bit sequence and a second bit sequence that deterministically encode the first and second numerical values, respectively, based on a proportion of the data bits in the sequence that are high relative to the data bits in the sequence that are low, to generate pair-wise bit combinations of the first bit sequence and the second bit sequence, wherein a subset of the plurality of pair-wise bit combinations pairs a data bit of the first bit sequence with multiple different data bits of the second bit sequence;
• and
• processing the pair-wise bit combinations with a stochastic computational unit to produce an output bit stream having a set of data bits indicating a result of a computational operation, wherein the data bits of the output bit stream represent the result based on a probability that any data bit in the set of data bits of the output bit stream is high.