IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2016 - 83

Also presented are experimental data,
showing parallel read-out of two magnetic memory elements via spin wave
interference. All experiments are done
at room temperature. Magnonic holographic devices aim to combine the
advantages of magnetic data storage
with wave-based information transfer.
Estimates on the spin wave holographic device performance are presented,
including power consumption and
functional throughput. According to
the estimates, magnonic holographic
devices may provide data processing
rates higher than 1 × 1018 b/cm2/s
while consuming 0.15 mW. Technological challenges and fundamental
physical limits of this approach are
also discussed.

Neuromorphic Computing,
Associative Processors Using
Nanotechnology-Based
Coupled Oscillators
"Phase Coupling and Control
of Oxide-Based Oscillators for
Neuromorphic Computing"
by A.A. Sharma, J.A. Bain, and J.A. Weldon (this article contains multimedia)

Neuromorphic computing using
neural-network hardware has attracted
significant interest as it promises improved performance at low power for
data-intensive error-resilient graphical
signal processing. Oscillatory neural
networks (ONNs) use either frequency
or phase as state variables to implement frequency-shift keying (FSK)- and
phase-shift keying (PSK)-based neural
networks, respectively. To make these
ONNs power and area efficient, backend-of-the-line compatible, and capable
of processing multilevel information,
the authors explore an emerging class
of oscillators that show fine-grain frequency tuning and phase coupling.
They examine TaOx- and TiOx-based
oscillators (resistive random access
memory type) as elements of a neuromorphic compute block and experimentally demonstrate: 1) frequency
control over four decades using a ballast MOSFET, 2) variable phase coupling
between oscillators, and 3) variable
phase programming between oscillators coupled with a MOSFET. Such finegrain control over both frequency and
relative phase serve as the desirable
characteristics of oscillators required

for multilevel information processing
in star-type directly coupled FSK- and
PSK-based neuromorphic systems that
find applications in gray-scale image
processing and other graphical compute paradigms.

"Physical Implementation
of Coherently-Coupled
Oscillator Networks"
by M. Pufall, W. Rippard, G. Csaba, D.
Nikonov, G. Bourianoff, and W. Porod
This paper presents a combined experimental and simulation study of the
physical implementation of coherently
coupled oscillator networks composed
of spin-torque oscillators (STOs).
Based on published works and on our
recent experiments, the behavior of
individual oscillators and arrays of
coupled oscillators is reviewed. Models are constructed that are calibrated
by experiments, and the simulations
demonstrate that an array of coherently-coupled STOs exhibit the basic functionality of an associative memory.
-Ian Young
Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Journal on
Exploratory Solid-State Computational
Devices and Circuits

SSCS Young Professionals, Graduate Students, Distinguished
Lecturers, and Executives Gather at ESSCIRC in Austria for
Mentoring and Career Coaching

IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society
(SSCS) Young Professionals and Graduate Students Chair Emre Ayranci
held a mentoring and coaching event
at the European Solid-State Circuits
Conference (ESSCIRC) in Graz, Austria, on 15 September 2015.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2015.2495895
Date of publication: 21 January 2016

The event kicked off with a warm
welcome and a presentation by Ayranci
highlighting the numerous benefits of
SSCS membership. After a brief introduction of the participating mentors,
a moderated town hall was held. Participants had the opportunity to ask
mentors questions about career opportunities and directions, the future of
IC design, and how to start their own

companies. The mentors answered
their questions based on their own
experiences. After the town hall, participants mingled and talked with the mentors one on one. There were around
100 attendees and ten mentors, including Willy Sansen, Jan Van der Spiegel,
Bram Nauta, Stefan Rusu, Kofi Makinwa,
Andreia Cathelin, Borivoje Nikolic, Holger Meinel, and Marian Verhelst. The

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2016