Low-power dual-precision table-based function evaluation supporting dynamic precision changes

Table-based function evaluation is a popular approach for the design of special function unit in recent graphics and image/vision processing units. Despite of the increasing importance of dynamically changed precision, as far as we know, there is no paper discussing hardware function evaluator designs supporting run-time multiple precision. This paper presents several architectural alternatives for the design of dual-precision table-based function evaluation units. Experimental results show that area cost and power consumption can be effectively reduced by proper sharing of lookup tables and arithmetic components in different precision modes.