A Memristor Crossbar-Based XNOR-Net Architecture for Image Recognition
Received: 27 April 2025 | Revised: 9 June 2025 | Accepted: 15 June 2025 | Online: 11 July 2025
Corresponding author: Son Ngoc Truong
Abstract
XNOR-Net, employing the exclusive-NOR operation, has demonstrated a considerable enhancement in inference speed and a reduction in memory requirements for parameter storage. The hardware implementation of XNOR-Net has recently attracted much interest. This study proposes a memristor crossbar architecture to implement XNOR-Net for image recognition. The proposed memristor crossbar-based XNOR-Net consists of an input layer with 784 neurons, two hidden layers, each containing 500 neurons, and an output layer with 10 neurons for 10-digit recognition of MNIST images. The XNOR layer was implemented using a single memristor crossbar along with a constant current-generating circuit. This approach reduces the number of memristors by half, hence alleviating area and power overhead. In particular, in the output layer, all columns are fed into a Winner-Take-All (WTA) circuit to identify the column with the largest current. Therefore, the circuit that generates constant current can be excluded without affecting performance. In this way, the additional circuit can be removed, leading to a reduction in power consumption and area of the neuromorphic circuit. The memristor crossbar-based XNOR-Net showed a recognition rate of 94% on the MNIST dataset, producing correct outputs for input digits 0-9. The proposed memristor crossbar-based XNOR-Net demonstrates the potential for implementing memristor array-based deep network architectures in resource-constrained devices, especially in embedded and edge computing systems.
Keywords:
XNOR-Net, memristor crossbar circuit , neuromorphic computing systemDownloads
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