An efficient Hamming distance comparator for low-power applications

This paper presents a new scheme for basic pattern-matching applications. The scheme is capable of (i) determining whether the two bit-streams are identical (complete match), and if not (ii) whether the Hamming distance between them is larger than a given threshold (near match). It efficiently exploits the "time-domain" representation of binary values, and does not require multibit addition/comparison. Experimental comparisons show that the scheme is very fast, dissipates less power and yet more compact in implementation than the existing designs.