Circuitry having fully connected ring oscillators
AssigneeRegents of the University of Minnesota
InventorsHyung-Il Kim, William Moy, Hao Lo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fully connected ring oscillator circuit includes a plurality of first ring oscillator loops, a plurality of second ring oscillator loops, a plurality of ring oscillators and a plurality of coupled ring oscillators. Each first ring oscillator loop extends along a first axis. Each second ring oscillator loop extends along a second axis that is transverse to the first axis and intersects each of the first ring oscillator loops. Each ring oscillator includes one of the first ring oscillator loops connected to one of the second ring oscillator loops. Each coupled ring oscillator includes two of the ring oscillators that are connected to each other through a programmable weighted coupling block.
Claims20
A fully connected ring oscillator circuit comprising:
- a plurality of first ring oscillator loops each extending along a first axis;
- a plurality of second ring oscillator loops each extending along a second axis that is transverse to the first axis and intersecting the first ring oscillator loops;
- a plurality of ring oscillators each comprising one of the first ring oscillator loops connected to one of the second ring oscillator loops through a strong coupling, each ring oscillator producing an oscillating signal;
- and
- a plurality of coupled ring oscillators each comprising two of the ring oscillators connected to each other through a programmable weighted coupling block,
- wherein each of the programmable weighted coupling blocks is configured to selectively apply to the corresponding coupled ring oscillator a positive weight coupling that drives the oscillating signals of the ring oscillators of the coupled ring oscillator toward oscillating in a same phase with each other, and a negative weight coupling that drives the oscillating signals of the ring oscillators of the coupled ring oscillator toward oscillating in an opposite phase with each other.
A chip architecture including an array of fully connected ring oscillators comprising:
- a plurality of first ring oscillator loops each extending along a first axis;
- a plurality of second ring oscillator loops each extending along a second axis that is transverse to the first axis and intersecting one of the first ring oscillator loops;
- a plurality of ring oscillators each comprising one of the first ring oscillator loops connected to one of the second ring oscillator loops through a strong coupling, each ring oscillator producing an oscillating signal;
- and
- a plurality of coupled ring oscillators each comprising two of the ring oscillators connected to each other through a programmable weighted coupling block,
- wherein each of the programmable weighted coupling blocks is configured to selectively apply to the corresponding coupled ring oscillator a positive weight coupling that drives the oscillating signals of the ring oscillators of the coupled ring oscillator toward oscillating in a same phase with each other, and a negative weight coupling that drives the oscillating signals of the ring oscillators of the coupled ring oscillator toward oscillating in an opposite phase with each other.
A method of solving a combinatorial optimization problem (COP) comprising:
- forming a spin network mapping of a graph representing the COP using compute engine circuitry, the circuitry comprising:
- a plurality of first ring oscillator loops each extending along a first axis;
- a plurality of second ring oscillator loops each extending along a second axis that is transverse to the first axis;
- a plurality of ring oscillators each producing an oscillating signal that represents a spin of the spin network mapping and comprising one of the first ring oscillator loops connected to one of the second ring oscillator loops through a strong coupling, each ring oscillator producing an oscillating signal representing the spin;
- and
- a plurality of coupled ring oscillators each representing a connection between spins of the spin network mapping and comprising two of the ring oscillators connected to each other through a programmable weighted coupling block;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- program each of the weighted coupling blocks in accordance with the spin network mapping to selectively apply to the corresponding coupled ring oscillator a positive weight coupling that drives the oscillating signals of the ring oscillators of the coupled ring oscillator toward oscillating in a same phase with each other, or a negative weight coupling that drives the oscillating signals of the ring oscillators of the coupled ring oscillator toward oscillating in an opposite phase with each other;
- compare a relative phase of the oscillating signals of the coupled ring oscillators at different delay points and output a phase signal indicating a degree to which the oscillating signals are in phase with each other;
- and
- process the phase signals into a solution indicating a total energy of the spin network mapping.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.