The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 31, 2021
Filed:
May. 16, 2019
Facebook, Inc., Menlo Park, CA (US);
Anup Ramesh Kadkol, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Krishnakumar Nair, Newark, CA (US);
FACEBOOK, INC., Menlo Park, CA (US);
Abstract
A circuit and method for calculating a non-linear function of floating-point numbers using hierarchical look-up tables are provided. The look-up tables are programmable to hold non-linear ranges of values for any of a variety of non-linear functions. The circuit includes computation modules in respective stages of a high-throughput computation pipeline. A first computation module in a first stage receives one or more floating-point numbers and, for each floating-point number, selects a first entry from a first look-up table based on the floating-point number. The first computation module then calculates and outputs a table index and a variable based on the first floating-point number and the first entry. The second compute module in a second stage, selects a second entry from a second look-up table based on the table index, and calculates and outputs an approximate value for the non-linear function using the variable and the second entry.