Collaborative Research: Reversible Computing and Reservoir Computing with Magnetic Skyrmions for Energy-Efficient Boolean Logic and Artificial Intelligence Hardware

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

As the increasing pervasiveness of computers throughout society has led to drastic increases in the energy consumed by computers, there is a strong need to improve the energy efficiency of computers. In addition to minimizing the economic and environmental costs resulting from computer energy consumption, enhancing the energy efficiency of computers will also allow for increased computing capabilities with beneficial impacts throughout society. This project will therefore design and experimentally demonstrate computing systems with extreme energy efficiency, both for high-performance computing and for artificial intelligence. This extreme energy efficiency will be achieved by leveraging magnetic skyrmions, which are magnetic quasiparticles that have been predicted to be suitable for energy-efficient conventional computing in the reversible computing paradigm as well as for energy-efficient artificial intelligence through the reservoir computing paradigm. This project will significantly advance the development of computers with extreme energy efficiency, thereby reducing environmental harm, facilitating economic development, and enabling revolutionary computing applications that require minimal power dissipation. This project will also have beneficial impacts on workforce development through the inclusion of undergraduate research participants and the vertical training of graduate students from devices to systems. This project will design and experimentally demonstrate reversible and reservoir computers with magnetic skyrmions. Magnetic skyrmions are swirls of magnetic spin texture that are energy-protected once created. They are tunable in size, can operate at room temperature, and have dynamical response to current, voltage, and field, making them a good choice for use in future computing paradigms. Based on preliminary designs and simulations of the PIs on the efficient use of skyrmions in reversible and reservoir computing, this project has four main objectives. Firstly, skyrmion reversible computer co-design will be carried out to efficiently drive the skyrmions, to determine optimal parameters, and to develop a roadmap for the future of skyrmion reversible computing. Secondly, skyrmion reversible computer fabrication will be carried out to demonstrate and analyze skyrmion stability, voltage-driven skyrmion propagation, skyrmion interactions mediated by the skyrmion-Hall effect, and reversible skyrmion logic gates. Thirdly, skyrmion reservoir computing co-design will be carried out to maximize the reservoir expressivity and energy efficiency, to determine optimal parameters, and to develop a roadmap for the future of skyrmion reservoir computing. And fourthly, skyrmion reservoir computer fabrication will be carried out to measure multi-skyrmion interactions, to control repeatability through pinning sites, and to demonstrate and characterize skyrmion reservoir computers. This project will advance the science of thin film magnetism, improve understanding of the dynamics of magnetic nanostructures, develop new device designs and fabrication methods for skyrmion-based devices, and develop and implement circuits and systems to leverage those dynamics. This project will thus advance knowledge in materials, devices, and computing. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.