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Execution

Edge AI

Joules per inference as the design metric

The Joule-Bounded Inference Architecture makes energy budget an admission criterion. Sub-15 W and INT8/INT4 figures are design targets, not measurements.

Architecture defined Pre-silicon
Status
Architecture defined
Design metric
Joules per inference at target accuracy
Precision
INT8 / INT4 (design target)
Power envelope
Sub-15 W (design target)
Measured benchmarks
None; pre-silicon

Design targets · not measured silicon results

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Trust domain Trusted compute
Nelix trusted compute domain Floorplan with four nested planes: board domain, package, die, and a central trust island for device identity, measurement and signing. Compute, memory, sensor I/O, metrology, crypto and telemetry route into a ring bus. Only signed data leaves through an attestation export port. Board domain Package Die Die extent Package extent Compute Bounded array Memory Measured store I/O phy Sensor ingress Metrology Sense & sample Crypto Sign & seal Telemetry Signed export Ring bus Trust island Root of trust Key slots Identity · measure · sign Port signed Attestation export Nothing else crosses
  • Trust boundary
  • Supporting logic
  • Signed data in flight
Edge AI · labelled architecture
Infrastructure equipment in the field conditions this mechanism is designed for
Field condition the mechanism is specified against
PROBLEM

Datacentre design does not transfer to a sealed cabinet

Stable power and active cooling are assumptions edge sites do not share. Scaling a throughput-first part down still leaves it outside the thermal and energy envelope.

While running Runtime verification
Continuous runtime verification A conceptual die floorplan for continuous measurement. An always-on measurement engine occupies the left of the die, with a four-phase cycle beneath it: sample, hash, extend, compare. To its right a recessive band shows workload activity in three lanes of uneven task footprints. A sample bus runs under the band and a comb of taps drops from it into a digest chain of linked cells, one per epoch, which the light extends from left to right. One epoch is flagged and re-measured. Beneath the chain the measured history stacks downward in rows that fade as they age, and the chain has no entry from its left end, so the record can only be extended and never rewound. Fresh evidence leaves through a port on the right edge. Operating die · power on Measure engine Always on Sampler Hash macro Every epoch not only at boot Sample Hash Extend Compare Workload activity L0 L1 L2 Sample bus Rolling digest E0 E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 No rewind Re-measure Measured history E6 E5 E4 E3 Fresh quote Measurement continues for as long as the device runs
  • Measured epoch
  • Flagged for re-measure
  • Light = the digest being extended
Boot-time proof goes stale, so measurement continues while the device works and the evidence an operator asks for is always current.
Bound energy first, then fit the work · design intent
APPROACH

Bound energy first, then fit the work

Requests admit under an Energy Contract naming joule budget, model tier and clock profile. INT8/INT4 datapaths and a traffic-aware memory hierarchy target energy per inference; model versions stay measured and signed.

Memory-block silicon
Memory-block silicon
PROPERTIES

What follows from the diagram

  1. Energy Contract admission

    Budget is an entry condition, not a post-hoc observation

  2. INT8 / INT4 datapaths

    Reduced precision cuts arithmetic and memory energy

  3. Local dataflow

    Weights and activations stay near the arithmetic

  4. Measured model version

    Results attribute to a specific signed model

Engage

Reviewing this mechanism?

The specification can still change. That stops being true after tape-out.

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