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Machine learning accelerators (MLAs) are increasingly im- portant in many applications such as image and video processing, speech recognition, and natural language processing. To achieve the needed per- formances and power efficiencies, MLAs are highly concurrent. The cor- rectness of MLAs hinges on the concept of sequential consistency, i.e., the concurrent execution of a program by an MLA must be equivalent to a sequential execution of the program. In this paper, we certify the sequential consistency of modular MLAs using theorem proving. We őrst provide a formalization of the MLAs and deőne their sequential consis- tency. After that, we introduce our certiőcation methodology based on inductive theorem proving. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of our approach through the analysis of the NVIDIA Deep Learning Accelerator and the Versatile Tensor Accelerator 

Controlling heat flow is a key challenge for applications ranging from thermal management in electronics to energy systems, industrial processing, and thermal therapy. However, progress has generally been limited by slow response times and low tunability in thermal conductance. In this work, we demonstrate an electronically gated solid-state thermal switch using self-assembled molecular junctions to achieve excellent performance at room temperature. In this three-terminal device, heat flow is continuously and reversibly modulated by an electric field through carefully controlled chemical bonding and charge distributions within the molecular interface. The devices have ultrahigh switching speeds above 1 megahertz, have on/off ratios in thermal conductance greater than 1300%, and can be switched more than 1 million times. We anticipate that these advances will generate opportunities in molecular engineering for thermal management systems and thermal circuit design.

 

Plant organ size is an important agronomic trait tightly related to crop yield. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying organ size regulation remain largely unexplored in legumes. We previously characterized a key regulator F‐box protein MINI ORGAN1 (MIO1)/SMALL LEAF AND BUSHY1 (SLB1), which controls plant organ size in the model legumeMedicago truncatula. In order to further dissect the molecular mechanism, MIO1 was used as the bait to screen its interacting proteins from a yeast library. Subsequently, a KIX protein, designated MtKIX8, was identified from the candidate list. The interaction between MIO1 and MtKIX8 was confirmed further by Y2H, BiFC, split‐luciferase complementation and pull‐down assays. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that MtKIX8 is highly homologous toArabidopsisKIX8, which negatively regulates organ size. Moreover, loss‐of‐function ofMtKIX8led to enlarged leaves and seeds, while ectopic expression ofMtKIX8inArabidopsisresulted in decreased cotyledon area and seed weight. Quantitative reverse‐transcription PCR and in situ hybridization showed thatMtKIX8is expressed in most developing organs. We also found that MtKIX8 serves as a crucial molecular adaptor, facilitating interactions with BIG SEEDS1 (BS1) and MtTOPLESS (MtTPL) proteins inM. truncatula. Overall, our results suggest that the MIO1‐MtKIX8 module plays a significant and conserved role in the regulation of plant organ size. This module could be a good target for molecular breeding in legume crops and forages.

 

Thermal management is the most critical technology challenge for modern electronics. Recent key materials innovation focuses on developing advanced thermal interface of electronic packaging for achieving efficient heat dissipation. Here, for the first time we report a record-high performance thermal interface beyond the current state of the art, based on self-assembled manufacturing of cubic boron arsenide (s-BAs). The s-BAs exhibits highly desirable characteristics of high thermal conductivity up to 21 W/m·K and excellent elastic compliance similar to that of soft biological tissues down to 100 kPa through the rational design of BAs microcrystals in polymer composite. In addition, the s-BAs demonstrates high flexibility and preserves the high conductivity over at least 500 bending cycles, opening up new application opportunities for flexible thermal cooling. Moreover, we demonstrated device integration with power LEDs and measured a superior cooling performance of s-BAs beyond the current state of the art, by up to 45 °C reduction in the hot spot temperature. Together, this study demonstrates scalable manufacturing of a new generation of energy-efficient and flexible thermal interface that holds great promise for advanced thermal management of future integrated circuits and emerging applications such as wearable electronics and soft robotics.