Computational devices using thermometer coding and scaling networks on unary encoded data

Abstract

This disclosure describes techniques for performing computational operations on input unary bit streams using one or more scaling networks. In some examples, a device is configured to perform a digital computational operation, where the device includes a plurality of input wires and a plurality of output wires. Each input wire is configured to receive a respective input bit of an encoded input value, and each output wire is configured to output a respective output bit of an encoded output value. The device also includes scaling network circuitry configured to apply a function to the encoded input value by electrically routing at least one input wire of the plurality of input wires to at least two output wires of the plurality of output wires. The device can also include hybrid binary/unary computations.