Low complexity VLSI implementation of CORDIC-based exponent calculation for neural networks

This article presents a low hardware complexity for exponent calculations based on CORDIC. The proposed CORDIC algorithm is designed to overcome major drawbacks (scale-factor compensation, low range of convergence and optimal selection of micro-rotations) of the conventional CORDIC in hyperbolic mode of operation. The micro-rotations are identified using leading-one bit detection with uni-direction rotations to eliminate redundant iterations and improve throughput. The efficiency and performance of the processor are independent of the probability of rotation angles being known prior to implementation. The eight-staged pipelined architecture implementation requires an 8?×?N ROM in the pre-processing unit for storing the initial coordinate values; it no longer requires the ROM for storing the elementary angles. It provides an area-time efficient design for VLSI implementation for calculating exponents in activation functions and Gaussain Potential Functions (GPF) in neural networks. The proposed CORDIC processor requires 32.68% less adders and 72.23% less registers compared to that of the conventional design. The proposed design when implemented on Virtex 2P (2vp50ff1148-6) device, dissipates 55.58% less power and has 45.09% less total gate count and 16.91% less delay as compared to Xilinx CORDIC Core. The detailed algorithm design along with FPGA implementation and area and time complexities is presented.