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Solving combinatorial optimisation problems using oscillator based Ising machines

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Abstract

We present OIM (Oscillator Ising Machines), a new way to make Ising machines using networks of coupled self-sustaining nonlinear oscillators. OIM is theoretically rooted in a novel result that establishes that the phase dynamics of coupled oscillator systems, under the influence of subharmonic injection locking, are governed by a Lyapunov function that is closely related to the Ising Hamiltonian of the coupling graph. As a result, the dynamics of such oscillator networks evolve naturally to local minima of the Lyapunov function. Two simple additional steps (i.e., turning subharmonic locking on and off smoothly, and adding noise) enable the network to find excellent solutions of Ising problems. We demonstrate our method on Ising versions of the MAX-CUT and graph colouring problems, showing that it improves on previously published results on several problems in the G benchmark set. Using synthetic problems with known global minima, we also present initial scaling results. Our scheme, which is amenable to realisation using many kinds of oscillators from different physical domains, is particularly well suited for CMOS IC implementation, offering significant practical advantages over previous techniques for making Ising machines. We report working hardware prototypes using CMOS electronic oscillators.

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Notes

  1. Indeed, since the Ising Hamiltonian ground state problem is NP-complete (Barahona 1982), every NP-complete problem can in principle be mapped to Ising.

  2. This is somewhat analogous to annealing schedules that are used in simulated annealing (SA, Myklebust 2015), though we stress that the underlying minimization mechanism of OIM is completely different from that of SA.

  3. Moreover, as we show in Sect. 3.4, our scheme is inherently resistant to variability even without such calibration.

  4. More generally, \(c_{ij}\)s can be any \(2\pi \)-periodic odd functions, which are better suited to practical oscillators.

  5. In the Ising Hamiltonian (1), \(J_{ij}\) is only defined when \(i<j\); here we assume that \(J_{ij} = J_{ji}\) for all i,  j.

  6. More generally, we can use \(\{2k\pi\ |\ k\in {\mathbf {Z}}\}\) and \(\{2k\pi +\pi\ |\ k\in {\mathbf {Z}}\}\) to represent the two states for each oscillator’s phase.

  7. We ran simulated annealing for a long time (1m) multiple times, then treated the best results as global optima.

  8. Benchmarks G1\(\sim \)21 are of size 800; G22\(\sim \)42 are of size 2000; G43\(\sim \)47, G51\(\sim \)54 are of size 1000; G48\(\sim \)50 are of size 3000.

  9. Results and runtimes for SS, CirCut and VNSPR are available in the “Computational Experiences” section of Wang (2017).

  10. Note that the 200 simulations can be run in parallel to greatly reduce this runtime. However, we stress that software simulation time is not of immediate relevance for OIM; instead, it is the time the OIM hardware will take to solve the problem, as discussed below.

  11. The results here were re-generated using updated code, hence do not exactly match the results we reported previously (Wang and Roychowdhury 2019a, b).

  12. Each single loop has one frustrated edge by design. When they overlap, the weights of the frustrated edges can change, and they may not remain individually frustrated. This does not change the result regarding the global minimum energy level.

  13. Different criteria are used in different versions of frustrated loop benchmarks. In Sheldon et al. (2019), a loop is too short when its length is smaller than 6; in Hen et al. (2015), when its length is smaller than 8; in King et al. (2015), when the loop remains confined in a 8-vertex cube. We choose to be consistent with Sheldon et al. (2019) for this preliminary exploration.

  14. In Sheldon et al. (2019) and Hen et al. (2015), the frustrated edge is chosen randomly; in King et al. (2015), the frustrated edge is chosen randomly among edges with a total weight below a certain threshold, such that ideally most edge weights reach the threshold eventually.

  15. e.g., we have not yet explored OIM parameter tuning to achieve lower TTS.

  16. Ising machines can be used on general graph colouring problems, and this four-colouring problem is chosen here for illustrative purposes. Four-colouring a planar graph is actually not NP-hard and there exist polynomial-time algorithms for it Robertson et al. (1996).

  17. Hawaii and Alaska are considered adjacent, hence their colours will be different in the map.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to the anonymous reviewers for their exceptionally well-informed and thorough examination of the manuscript and their detailed, insightful suggestions for improvement. Support from the US National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, USA

    Tianshi Wang, Leon Wu, Parth Nobel & Jaijeet Roychowdhury

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Wang, T., Wu, L., Nobel, P. et al. Solving combinatorial optimisation problems using oscillator based Ising machines. Nat Comput 20, 287–306 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-021-09845-3

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