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ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC)

A new heuristic algorithm for reversible logic synthesis

Paweł Kerntopf

Published Jun 7, 2004• 132 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Reversible logic has applications in many fields, including quantum computing. Synthesis techniques for reversible circuits are not well developed, even for functions with a small number of inputs and outputs. This paper proposes an approach to reversible logic synthesis using a new complexity measure based on shared binary decision diagrams with complemented edges (instead of truth tables or PPRM forms, as in the previous algorithms). The approach can be used with arbitrary libraries of reversible logic gates and arbitrary cost functions. Experiments show promising results in comparison with the known approaches.

DOI
10.1145/996566.996789

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Reversible logic has applications in many fields, including quantum computing. Synthesis techniques for reversible circuits are not well developed, even for functions with a small number of inputs and outputs. This paper proposes an approach to reversible logic synthesis using a new complexity measure based on shared binary decision diagrams with complemented edges (instead of truth tables or PPRM forms, as in the previous algorithms). The approach can be used with arbitrary libraries of reversible logic gates and arbitrary cost functions. Experiments show promising results in comparison with the known approaches.
Reversible logic became a promising alternative to traditional circuits because of its applications in emerging technologies such as quantum computing, low-power design, DNA computing, or nanotechnologies. As a result, synthesis of the respective circuits is an intensely studied topic. However, most synthesis methods are limited, because they rely on a truth table representation of the function to be synthesized. In this paper, the authors present a synthesis approach that is based on Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs). The authors propose a technique to derive reversible or quantum circuits from BDDs by substituting all nodes of the BDD with a cascade of Toffoli or quantum gates, respectively. Boolean functions containing more than a hundred of variables can efficiently be synthesized. More precisely, a circuit can be obtained from a given BDD using an algorithm with linear worst case behavior regarding run-time and space requirements. Furthermore, using the proposed approach, theoretical results known from BDDs can be transferred to reversible circuits. Experiments show better results (with respect to the circuit cost) and a significantly better scalability in comparison to previous synthesis approaches.
Synthesis of reversible and quantum logic has become an intensely studied topic in the last years. However, most synthesis methods are limited, since they rely on a truth table representation of the function to be synthesized. BDD-based synthesis offers an alternative. Here, reversible or quantum circuits are derived from a function given as Binary Decision Diagram (BDD) by substituting all nodes of the BDD with a cascade of Toffoli or elementary quantum gates, respectively. As a result, the application of the approach is not limited by the truth table of the function but by the (quite more efficient) BDD representation. Furthermore, many optimization techniques for BDDs exist which can be exploited. In this work, we evaluate the effect of three optimization methods for BDDs (namely shared nodes, complement edges, and advanced orderings) on the resulting reversible and quantum circuits. We describe in detail the adjustments, which have to be done to support these optimizations for synthesis, and discuss possible improvements and drawbacks. In a case study, the effects are experimentally evaluated. The results showed, that applying these optimization techniques leads to significant smaller circuits (with respect to number of gates and lines) in most of the cases.
Reversible logic circuits have been historically motivated by theoretical research in low-power, and recently attracted interest as components of the quantum algorithm, optical computing and nanotechnology. However due to the intrinsic property of reversible logic, traditional irreversible logic design and synthesis methods cannot be carried out. Thus a new set of algorithms are developed correctly to synthesize reversible logic circuit. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review with comparative study on heuristic based reversible logic synthesis. It reviews a range of heuristic based reversible logic synthesis techniques reported by researchers (BDD-based, cycle-based, search-based, non-search-based, rule-based, transformation-based, and ESOP-based). All techniques are described in detail and summarized in a table based on their features, limitation, library used and their consideration metric. Benchmark comparison of gate count and quantum cost are analysed for each synthesis technique. Comparing the synthesis algorithm outputs over the years, it can be observed that different approach has been used for the synthesis of reversible circuit. However, the improvements are not significant. Quantum cost and gate count has improved over the years, but arguments and debates are still on certain issues such as the issue of garbage outputs that remain the same. This paper provides the information of all heuristic based synthesis of reversible logic method proposed over the years. All techniques are explained in detail and thus informative for new reversible logic researchers and bridging the knowledge gap in this area.
Reversible logic circuits have been historically motivated by theoretical research in low-power, and recently attracted interest as components of the quantum algorithm, optical computing and nanotechnology. However due to the intrinsic property of reversible logic, traditional irreversible logic design and synthesis methods cannot be carried out. Thus a new set of algorithms are developed correctly to synthesize reversible logic circuit. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review with comparative study on heuristic based reversible logic synthesis. It reviews a range of heuristic based reversible logic synthesis techniques reported by researchers (BDD-based, cycle-based, search-based, non-search-based, rule-based, transformation-based, and ESOP-based). All techniques are described in detail and summarized in a table based on their features, limitation, library used and their consideration metric. Benchmark comparison of gate count and quantum cost are analysed for each synthesis technique. Comparing the synthesis algorithm outputs over the years, it can be observed that different approach has been used for the synthesis of reversible circuit. However, the improvements are not significant. Quantum cost and gate count has improved over the years, but arguments and debates are still on certain issues such as the issue of garbage outputs that remain the same. This paper provides the information of all heuristic based synthesis of reversible logic method proposed over the years. All techniques are explained in detail and thus informative for new reversible logic researchers and bridging the knowledge gap in this area.
In the last decade, the synthesis of reversible logic circuits has become a trending topic because of its future necessity and importance. Many methods have been studied and proposed, for instance, transformation-based, search-based, cycle-based, ESOP-based and BDD-based methods. Each of them has its limitation related to time processing, ancilla and garbage line, quantum cost. This study develops an algorithm that could synthesize quantum circuits based on mixed-polarity Toffoli gate and a variant of binary decision diagram (BDD) called reduced-ordered-complemented edge-bdd (ROCBDD). It is an optimized method of BDD to reduce nodes in the representation of Boolean functions, which leads to adding more lines and quantum gates in the reversible circuit. First, the differences between synthesis using ROCBDD, the traditional BDD and others methods are introduced. Then, we define a new structure consisting of mixed-polarity Toffoli gates relied on nodes of ROCBDD. An efficient algorithm to match BDD representation to the reversible logic circuit is also mentioned. Finally, the experimental results show that our algorithm has better synthesizing costs than previous BDD-based methods.
Synthesis of reversible logic has become a very important research area. In recent years several algorithms--heuristic as well as exact ones--have been introduced in this area. Typically, they use the specification of a reversible function in terms of a truth table as input. Here, the position of the outputs are fixed. However, in general it is irrelevant, how the respective outputs are ordered. Thus, a synthesis methodology is proposed that determines for a given reversible function an equivalent circuit realization modulo output permutation. More precisely, the result of the synthesis process is a circuit realization whose output functions have been permuted in comparison to the original specification and the respective permutation vector. We show that this synthesis methodology may lead to significant smaller realizations. We apply Synthesis with Output Permutation (SWOP) to both, an exact and a heuristic synthesis algorithm. As our experiments show using the new synthesis paradigm leads to multiple control Toffoli networks that are smaller than the currently best known realizations.