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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zhang, Lei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.01042
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author Zhang, Lei
author_facet Zhang, Lei
contents Spiking neural networks (SNNs) support energy-efficient machine intelligence because event-driven computation and sparse activity map naturally to low-power digital hardware. In practical implementations, however, membrane states, synaptic weights, and thresholds are represented with finite-precision integer arithmetic. Quantization, clipping, and overflow can therefore alter network dynamics, not just approximate a higher-precision model. This paper adopts an integer-state dynamical perspective, modeling a hardware-oriented SNN as a deterministic map on a bounded integer lattice. Under this view, recurrence, periodic orbits, and regime changes become intrinsic properties of the system. We introduce a lightweight update rule with integer-valued states and shift-based leakage, and demonstrate the approach through exploratory simulations with network sizes N = 30-130, connection densities 0.1-0.9, and bit widths 4/8/16 over T = 1000 steps. The results show bounded and recurrent temporal structure with strong quantization sensitivity. The observed regimes depend heavily on representation semantics and scaling choices. These findings suggest that numerical precision acts as a dynamical design variable and highlight integer-state analysis as a useful framework for hardware-aware SNN co-design, motivating future work on attractor analysis, precision-aware training, and FPGA/ASIC validation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_01042
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Integer-State Dynamics of Quantized Spiking Neural Networks for Efficient Hardware Acceleration
Zhang, Lei
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Chaotic Dynamics
Spiking neural networks (SNNs) support energy-efficient machine intelligence because event-driven computation and sparse activity map naturally to low-power digital hardware. In practical implementations, however, membrane states, synaptic weights, and thresholds are represented with finite-precision integer arithmetic. Quantization, clipping, and overflow can therefore alter network dynamics, not just approximate a higher-precision model. This paper adopts an integer-state dynamical perspective, modeling a hardware-oriented SNN as a deterministic map on a bounded integer lattice. Under this view, recurrence, periodic orbits, and regime changes become intrinsic properties of the system. We introduce a lightweight update rule with integer-valued states and shift-based leakage, and demonstrate the approach through exploratory simulations with network sizes N = 30-130, connection densities 0.1-0.9, and bit widths 4/8/16 over T = 1000 steps. The results show bounded and recurrent temporal structure with strong quantization sensitivity. The observed regimes depend heavily on representation semantics and scaling choices. These findings suggest that numerical precision acts as a dynamical design variable and highlight integer-state analysis as a useful framework for hardware-aware SNN co-design, motivating future work on attractor analysis, precision-aware training, and FPGA/ASIC validation.
title Integer-State Dynamics of Quantized Spiking Neural Networks for Efficient Hardware Acceleration
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Chaotic Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.01042