Approximate circuits (AxCs) tradeoff computational accuracy against improvements in hardware area, delay, or energy consumption. IP core vendors who wish to create such circuits need to convince consumers of the resulting approximation quality. As a solution, we propose proof-carrying AxCs. The vendor creates an approximate IP core together with a certificate that proves the approximation quality. The proof certificate is bundled with the approximate IP core and sent off to the consumer. The consumer can formally verify the approximation quality of the IP core at a fraction of the typical computational cost for formal verification. In this brief, we first make the case for proof-carrying AxCs and then demonstrate the feasibility of the approach by a set of synthesis experiments using an exemplary approximation framework.

中文翻译：

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携带证明的近似电路

近似电路 (AxC) 在计算精度与硬件面积、延迟或能耗的改进之间进行权衡。希望创建此类电路的 IP 核供应商需要让消费者相信由此产生的近似质量。作为解决方案，我们提出了携带证明的 AxC。供应商创建一个近似 IP 核以及证明近似质量的证书。证明证书与近似 IP 核捆绑在一起并发送给消费者。消费者可以以形式验证的典型计算成本的一小部分来形式化验证 IP 核的近似质量。在本简报中，我们首先说明了携带证明的 AxCs，然后通过使用示例性近似框架的一组综合实验证明了该方法的可行性。