Workshop on Unary Computing (WUC) is a venue to share ideas to build computers that compute on brain-like unary encodings for unparalleled capability and efficiency. WUC has the mission of innovating the computing paradigm and showcasing an alternative to approach human-level intelligence and efficiency. WUC targets to uncover new theories in general-purpose unary computing, explore new application-level capabilities, design efficient unary hardware architecture and microarchitecture, and integrate unary computers into existing systems.
Engaging with spikes, our brain effortlessly executes complex tasks with unmatched energy efficiency, surpassing the capabilities of existing von-Neumann architectures. For instance, the brain operates at 20 watts, while one rack of CPUs and GPUs for similar tasks demand staggering 10,000 watts or even more. These spikes manifest as unary bitstreams, conveyed as distinct 0s and 1s sequentially, diverging from the conventional binary representation. This unary computing model is omnipresent in our neurons, supporting human perception and cognitive functions. An illustrative example is the role of unary data in preventing Barlow's bottleneck, ensuring the continuous perception of the environment through our fingertips. Unary computing has been extensively explored by diverse groups targeting various applications, showcasing its potential in the current era of edge AI. This workshop aims to establish connections among global computing researchers, fostering the exchange of ideas in unconventional computing paradigms, with a specific focus on unary computing. As embodied AI progresses toward AGI, it is crucial to contemplate the broad implications of unary computing on brain cognition, edge perception, and beyond. The workshop serves as a platform to explore the profound impact of unary computing in these domains.
Papers that contribute to the theory, applications and system of unary computing are solicited. General topics of interest include (not limited to):
Theory: new computing capability with unary encoding (rate and temporal coding, etc.), unary neural processing, metric formulation, simulation framework, etc.
Application: Brain-related cognitive tasks, biological perception tasks for embodied AI, non-bio-specific applications that can take advantage of unary encoding or unary computing, etc.
System: in/near-sensor unary computing, unary instruction set architecture, programming language for unary computing, scaling up unary computing in systems, etc.
Format:
Submissions can be either work-in-progress research papers or position papers.
Submissions must be PDF files, in 2-column, single-spaced, 10pt format, English and up to 4 pages, including references.
Submissions shall not include any author identifying information.
Accepted papers will be presented at the workshop and included in the workshop report.
Important Dates:
Submission deadline: Mar 1, 2024 (AOE) Mar 11, 2024 (AOE)
Acceptance date: Mar 12, 2024 Mar 24, 2024
Camera ready: April 15, 2024
Workshop: April 28, 2024
Submission site: https://wuc2024.hotcrp.com/
Contact: di.wu@ucf.edu