Theorie Kolloquium | July 17, 16:30

Magnetic whirls for unconventional computing

Karin Everschor-Sitte

Novel computational paradigms in combination with proper hardware solutions are required to overcome the limitations of our state-of-the-art computer technology, in particular regarding energy consumption. Due to the inherent complex and non-linear nature, spintronics offers the possibility towards energy-efficient, non-volatile hardware solutions for various unconventional computing schemes.[1-3] In this talk, I will discuss the possibility of using magnetic skyrmions for in particular two unconventional computing schemes – reservoir computing and stochastic computing. Reservoir computing is a computational scheme that allows to simplify spatial-temporal recognition tasks. We have shown that random skyrmion fabrics provide a suitable physical implementation of the reservoir[4,5] and allow to classify patterns via their complex resistance responses either by tracing the signal over time or by a single spatially resolved measurement.[6] Stochastic computing is a computational paradigm that allows to speed up a calculation while trading for numerical precision. Information is encoded in terms of bitstreams as a probability. A key requirement and simultaneously a challenge is that the incoming bitstreams are uncorrelated. The Brownian motion of magnetic skyrmions allows creating a device that reshuffles the bit-streams.[7,8] [1] J. Grollier, D. Querlioz, K. Y. Camsari, KES, S. Fukami, M. D. Stiles, Nat. Electron. (2020) [2] E. Vedmedenko, R. Kawakami, D. Sheka, ..., KES, et al., J. of Phys. D (2020) [3] G. Finocchio, M. Di Ventra, K.Y. Camsari, KES, P. K. Amiri and Z. Zeng, arXiv:1907.04601 [4] D. Prychynenko, M. Sitte, et al, KES, Phys. Rev. Appl. 9, 014034 (2018) [5] G. Bourianoff, D. Pinna, M. Sitte and KES, AIP Adv. 8, 055602 (2018) [6] D. Pinna, G. Bourianoff and KES, arXiv:1811.12623 [7] D. Pinna, F. Abreu Araujo, J.-V. Kim, et al, Phys. Rev. Appl. 9, 064018 (2018) [8] J. Zazvorka, F. Jakobs, D. Heinze, ..., KES, et al., Nat. Nanotech. 14, 658 (2019)


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