Investigates process variation effects on inference accuracy in AI architectures, suggesting robust fault mitigation strategies.
As the world increasingly embraces AI across critical domains such as healthcare and national security, conventional CMOS-based architectures struggle to meet the computational demands of Deep Neural Networks. Emerging technologies, such as Spin-Orbit Torque Magnetic Tunnel Junctions (SOT-MTJs), enable In-Memory Analog Computing (IMAC) architectures that offer substantial improvements in power efficiency and performance. However, Process Variation (PV) significantly impacts SOT-MTJ Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) performance by causing resistance shifts that induce bit-flips in memristive crossbar arrays, which results in degraded inference accuracy and reliability. In this work, we investigate the architectural-level impact of PV on inference accuracy and introduce a post-training weight mapping approach to mitigate faults in SOT-MRAM devices. We propose a Variation Impact Score (VIS) metric to quantify sub-array fault sensitivity and a Fault Observation Window (FOW) framework to localize vulnerable crossbar regions. Building on this analysis, we develop a VIS-guided dynamic weight-mapping module integrated with the IMAC-Sim presilicon framework that relocates critical weights from high-VIS FOWs to reliable regions without model retraining. Using SPICE-level evaluations, we demonstrate consistent accuracy recovery under severe process-induced faults, with recovery in early layers and substantial gains in the final decision layer, ensuring robust and reliable IMAC architectures despite hardware-induced bit-flips.
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Chowdhury et al. (2026) studied this question.
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