Quality and Complexity Assessment of Learning-Based Image Compression Solutions

This work presents an analysis of state-of-the-art learning-based image compression techniques. We compare 8 models available in the Tensorflow Compression package in terms of visual quality metrics and processing time, using the KODAK data set. The results are compared with the Better Portable Graphics (BPG) and the JPEG2000 codecs. Results show that JPEG2000 has the lowest execution times compared with the fastest learning-based model, with a speedup of 1.46x in compression and 30x in decompression. However, the learning-based models achieved improvements over JPEG2000 in terms of quality, specially for lower bitrates. Our findings also show that BPG is more efficient in terms of PSNR, but the learning models are better for other quality metrics, and sometimes even faster. The results indicate that learning-based techniques are promising solutions towards a future mainstream compression method.

Logic Synthesis Meets Machine Learning: Trading Exactness for Generalization

Logic synthesis is a fundamental step in hardware design whose goal is to find structural representations of Boolean functions while minimizing delay and area. If the function is completely-specified, the implementation accurately represents the function. If the function is incompletely-specified, the implementation has to be true only on the care set. While most of the algorithms in logic synthesis rely on SAT and Boolean methods to exactly implement the care set, we investigate learning in logic synthesis, attempting to trade exactness for generalization. This work is directly related to machine learning where the care set is the training set and the implementation is expected to generalize on a validation set. We present learning incompletely-specified functions based on the results of a competition conducted at IWLS 2020. The goal of the competition was to implement 100 functions given by a set of care minterms for training, while testing the implementation using a set of validation minterms sampled from the same function. We make this benchmark suite available and offer a detailed comparative analysis of the different approaches to learning