PC Press 1997 July/Sezamfile97_1.iso/msdos/infoprog/neural7.faq

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From: [e-mail] (Warren Sarle)
Subject: comp.ai.neural-nets FAQ, Part 7 of 7: Hardware
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Archive-name: ai-faq/neural-nets/part7
Last-modified: 1996-05-27
URL: ftp://ftp.sas.com/pub/neural/FAQ7.html
Maintainer: [e-mail] (Warren S. Sarle)

This is part 7 (of 7) of a monthly posting to the Usenet newsgroup
comp.ai.neural-nets. See the part 1 of this posting for full information
what it is all about.

========== Questions ==========
********************************

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Learning
Part 3: Generalization
Part 4: Books, data, etc.
Part 5: Free software
Part 6: Commercial software
Part 7: Hardware, etc.

   Neural Network hardware?
   Unanswered FAQs

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Neural Network hardware?
=================================

Overview articles:

 o Ienne, Paolo and Kuhn, Gary (1995), "Digital Systems for Neural
   Networks", in Papamichalis, P. and Kerwin, R., eds., Digital Signal
   Processing Technology, Critical Reviews Series CR57 Orlando, FL: SPIE
   Optical Engineering, pp 314-45,
   ftp://mantraftp.epfl.ch/mantra/ienne.spie95.A4.ps.gz or
   ftp://mantraftp.epfl.ch/mantra/ienne.spie95.US.ps.gz
 o ftp://ftp.mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk/pub/nn/murre/neurhard.ps (1995)
 o ftp://ftp.urc.tue.nl/pub/neural/hardware_general.ps.gz (1993)

Various NN HW information can be found in the Web site
http://www1.cern.ch/NeuralNets/nnwInHepHard.html (from people who really use
such stuff!). Several applications are described in
http://www1.cern.ch/NeuralNets/nnwInHepExpt.html

Further WWW pointers to NN Hardware:
http://msia02.msi.se/~lindsey/nnwAtm.html

Here is a short list of companies:

1. HNC, INC.
++++++++++++

     HNC Inc.
     5930 Cornerstone Court West
     San Diego, CA 92121-3728

     619-546-8877  Phone
     619-452-6524  Fax
     HNC markets:
      Database Mining Workstation (DMW), a PC based system that
      builds models of relationships and patterns in data. AND
      The SIMD Numerical Array Processor (SNAP). It is an attached
      parallel array processor in a VME chassis with between 16 and 64 parallel
      floating point processors. It provides between 640 MFLOPS and 2.56 GFLOPS
      for neural network and signal processing applications.  A Sun SPARCstation
      serves as the host.  The SNAP won the IEEE 1993 Gordon Bell Prize for best
      price/performance for supercomputer class systems.

2. SAIC (Sience Application International Corporation)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

      10260 Campus Point Drive
      MS 71, San Diego
      CA 92121
      [phone]
      Fax: [phone]

3. Micro Devices
++++++++++++++++

      30 Skyline Drive
      Lake Mary
      FL 32746-6201
      [phone]
      MicroDevices makes   MD1220 - 'Neural Bit Slice'
      Each of the products mentioned sofar have very different usages.
      Although this sounds similar to Intel's product, the
      architectures are not.

4. Intel Corp
+++++++++++++

      2250 Mission College Blvd
      Santa Clara, Ca 95052-8125
      Attn ETANN, Mail Stop SC9-40
      [phone]
      Intel was making an experimental chip (which is no longer produced):
      80170NW - Electrically trainable Analog Neural Network (ETANN)
      It has 64 'neurons' on it - almost fully internally connectted
      and the chip can be put in an hierarchial architecture to do 2 Billion
      interconnects per second.
      Support software by
        California Scientific Software
        10141 Evening Star Dr #6
        Grass Valley, CA 95945-9051
        [phone]
      Their product is called 'BrainMaker'.

5. NeuralWare, Inc
++++++++++++++++++

      Penn Center West
      Bldg IV Suite 227
      Pittsburgh
      PA 15276
      They only sell software/simulator but for many platforms.

6. Tubb Research Limited
++++++++++++++++++++++++

      7a Lavant Street
      Peterfield
      Hampshire
      GU32 2EL
      United Kingdom
      Tel: [phone]

7. Adaptive Solutions Inc
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

      1400 NW Compton Drive
      Suite 340
      Beaverton, OR 97006
      U. S. A.
      Tel: [phone];   FAX: [phone]

8. NeuroDynamX, Inc.
++++++++++++++++++++

      4730 Walnut St., Suite 101B
      Boulder, CO 80301
      Voice: [phone]   Fax: [phone]
      Internet: [e-mail]
      NDX sells a number neural network hardware products:
      NDX Neural Accelerators: a line of i860-based accelerator cards for
      the PC that give up to 45 million connections per second for use
      with the DynaMind neural network software.
      iNNTS: Intel's 80170NX (ETANN) Neural Network Training System. NDX's president
      was one of the co-designers of this chip.

9. IC Tech
++++++++++

   NEURO-COMPUTING IC's:
   *  DANN050L (dendro-dendritic artificial neural network)
      + 50 neurons fully connected at the input
      + on-chip digital learning capability
      + 6 billion connections/sec peak speed
      + learns 7 x 7 template in < 50 nsec., recalls in < 400 nsec.
      + low power < 100 milli Watts
      + 64-pin package
   *  NCA717D  (neuro correlator array)
      + analog template matching in < 500 nsec.
      + analog input / digital output pins for real-time computation
      + vision applications in stereo and motion computation
      + 40-pin package
   NEURO COMPUTING BOARD:
   *  ICT1050
      + IBM PC compatible or higher
      + with on-board DANN050L
      + digital interface
      + custom configurations available
   Contact:
   IC Tech (Innovative Computing Technologies, Inc.)
   4138 Luff Court
   Okemos, MI 48864
   [phone]
   [e-mail]

And here is an incomplete overview over known Neural Computers with their
newest known reference.

\subsection*{Digital}
\subsubsection{Special Computers}

{\bf AAP-2}
Takumi Watanabe, Yoshi Sugiyama, Toshio Kondo, and Yoshihiro Kitamura.
Neural network simulation on a massively parallel cellular array
processor: AAP-2.
In International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, 1989.

{\bf ANNA}
B.E.Boser, E.Sackinger, J.Bromley, Y.leChun, and L.D.Jackel.\\
Hardware Requirements for Neural Network Pattern Classifiers.\\
In {\it IEEE Micro}, 12(1), pages 32-40, February 1992.

{\bf Analog Neural Computer}
Paul Mueller et al.
Design and performance of a prototype analog neural computer.
In Neurocomputing, 4(6):311-323, 1992.

{\bf APx -- Array Processor Accelerator}\\
F.Pazienti.\\
Neural networks simulation with array processors.
In {\it Advanced Computer Technology, Reliable Systems and Applications;
Proceedings of the 5th Annual Computer Conference}, pages 547-551.
IEEE Comput. Soc. Press, May 1991. ISBN: 0-8186-2141-9.

{\bf ASP -- Associative String Processor}\\
A.Krikelis.\\
A novel massively associative processing architecture for the
implementation artificial neural networks.\\
In {\it 1991 International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and
Signal Processing}, volume 2, pages 1057-1060. IEEE Comput. Soc. Press,
May 1991.

{\bf BSP400}
Jan N.H. Heemskerk, Jacob M.J. Murre, Jaap Hoekstra, Leon H.J.G.
Kemna, and Patrick T.W. Hudson.
The bsp400: A modular neurocomputer assembled from 400 low-cost
microprocessors.
In International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks. Elsevier
Science, 1991.

{\bf BLAST}\\
J.G.Elias, M.D.Fisher, and C.M.Monemi.\\
A multiprocessor machine for large-scale neural network simulation.
In {\it IJCNN91-Seattle: International Joint Conference on Neural
Networks}, volume 1, pages 469-474. IEEE Comput. Soc. Press, July 1991.
ISBN: 0-7883-0164-1.

{\bf CNAPS Neurocomputer}\\
H.McCartor\\
Back Propagation Implementation on the Adaptive Solutions CNAPS
Neurocomputer.\\
In {\it Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems}, 3, 1991.

{\bf GENES~IV and MANTRA~I}\\
Paolo Ienne and  Marc A. Viredaz\\
{GENES~IV}: A Bit-Serial Processing Element for a Multi-Model
   Neural-Network Accelerator\\
Journal of {VLSI} Signal Processing, volume 9, no. 3, pages 257--273, 1995.

{\bf MA16 -- Neural Signal Processor}
U.Ramacher, J.Beichter, and N.Bruls.\\
Architecture of a general-purpose neural signal processor.\\
In {\it IJCNN91-Seattle: International Joint Conference on Neural
Networks}, volume 1, pages 443-446. IEEE Comput. Soc. Press, July 1991.
ISBN: 0-7083-0164-1.

{\bf Mindshape}
Jan N.H. Heemskerk, Jacob M.J. Murre Arend Melissant, Mirko Pelgrom,
and Patrick T.W. Hudson.
Mindshape: a neurocomputer concept based on a fractal architecture.
In International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks. Elsevier
Science, 1992.

{\bf mod 2}
Michael L. Mumford, David K. Andes, and Lynn R. Kern.
The mod 2 neurocomputer system design.
In IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, 3(3):423-433, 1992.

{\bf NERV}\\
R.Hauser, H.Horner, R. Maenner, and M.Makhaniok.\\
Architectural Considerations for NERV - a General Purpose Neural
Network Simulation System.\\
In {\it Workshop on Parallel Processing: Logic, Organization and
Technology -- WOPPLOT 89}, pages 183-195. Springer Verlag, Mars 1989.
ISBN: 3-5405-5027-5.

{\bf NP -- Neural Processor}\\
D.A.Orrey, D.J.Myers, and J.M.Vincent.\\
A high performance digital processor for implementing large artificial
neural networks.\\
In {\it Proceedings of of the IEEE 1991 Custom Integrated Circuits
Conference}, pages 16.3/1-4. IEEE Comput. Soc. Press, May 1991.
ISBN: 0-7883-0015-7.

{\bf RAP -- Ring Array Processor }\\
N.Morgan, J.Beck, P.Kohn, J.Bilmes, E.Allman, and J.Beer.\\
The ring array processor: A multiprocessing peripheral for connectionist
applications. \\
In {\it Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing}, pages
248-259, April 1992.

{\bf RENNS -- REconfigurable Neural Networks Server}\\
O.Landsverk, J.Greipsland, J.A.Mathisen, J.G.Solheim, and L.Utne.\\
RENNS - a Reconfigurable Computer System for Simulating Artificial
Neural Network Algorithms.\\
In {\it Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems, Proceedings of the
ISMM 5th International Conference}, pages 251-256. The International
Society for Mini and Microcomputers - ISMM, October 1992.
ISBN: 1-8808-4302-1.

{\bf SMART -- Sparse Matrix Adaptive and Recursive Transforms}\\
P.Bessiere, A.Chams, A.Guerin, J.Herault, C.Jutten, and J.C.Lawson.\\
From Hardware to Software: Designing a ``Neurostation''.\\
In {\it VLSI design of Neural Networks}, pages 311-335, June 1990.

{\bf SNAP -- Scalable Neurocomputer Array Processor}
E.Wojciechowski.\\
SNAP: A parallel processor for implementing real time neural networks.\\
In {\it Proceedings of the IEEE 1991 National Aerospace and Electronics
Conference; NAECON-91}, volume 2, pages 736-742. IEEE Comput.Soc.Press,
May 1991.

{\bf Toroidal Neural Network Processor}\\
S.Jones, K.Sammut, C.Nielsen, and J.Staunstrup.\\
Toroidal Neural Network: Architecture and Processor Granularity
Issues.\\
In {\it VLSI design of Neural Networks}, pages 229-254, June 1990.

{\bf SMART and SuperNode}
P. Bessi`ere, A. Chams, and P. Chol.
MENTAL : A virtual machine approach to artificial neural networks
programming. In NERVES, ESPRIT B.R.A. project no 3049, 1991.


\subsubsection{Standard Computers}

{\bf EMMA-2}\\
R.Battiti, L.M.Briano, R.Cecinati, A.M.Colla, and P.Guido.\\
An application oriented development environment for Neural Net models on
multiprocessor Emma-2.\\
In {\it Silicon Architectures for Neural Nets; Proceedings for the IFIP
WG.10.5 Workshop}, pages 31-43. North Holland, November 1991.
ISBN: 0-4448-9113-7.

{\bf iPSC/860 Hypercube}\\
D.Jackson, and D.Hammerstrom\\
Distributing Back Propagation Networks Over the Intel iPSC/860
Hypercube}\\
In {\it IJCNN91-Seattle: International Joint Conference on Neural
Networks}, volume 1, pages 569-574. IEEE Comput. Soc. Press, July 1991.
ISBN: 0-7083-0164-1.

{\bf SCAP -- Systolic/Cellular Array Processor}\\
Wei-Ling L., V.K.Prasanna, and K.W.Przytula.\\
Algorithmic Mapping of Neural Network Models onto Parallel SIMD
Machines.\\
In {\it IEEE Transactions on Computers}, 40(12), pages 1390-1401,
December 1991. ISSN: 0018-9340.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Unanswered FAQs
========================

If you have good answers for any of these questions, please send them to the
FAQ maintainer at [e-mail].

 o How many training cases do I need?
 o How should I split the data into training and validation sets?
 o What error functions can be used?
 o What are some good constructive training algorithms?
 o How can on-line/incremental training be done effectively?
 o How can I invert a network?
 o How can I select important input variables?
 o How to handle missing data?
 o Should NNs be used in safety-critical applications?
 o My net won't learn! What should I do???
 o My net won't generalize! What should I do???

------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's all folks (End of the Neural Network FAQ).

Acknowledgements: Thanks to all the people who helped to get the stuff
                  above into the posting. I cannot name them all, because
                  I would make far too many errors then. :->

                  No?  Not good?  You want individual credit?
                  OK, OK. I'll try to name them all. But: no guarantee....

  THANKS FOR HELP TO:
(in alphabetical order of email adresses, I hope)

 o Steve Ward <[e-mail]>
 o Allen Bonde <[e-mail]>
 o Accel Infotech Spore Pte Ltd <[e-mail]>
 o Ales Krajnc <[e-mail]>
 o Alexander Linden <[e-mail]>
 o Matthew David Aldous <[e-mail]>
 o S.Taimi Ames <[e-mail]>
 o Axel Mulder <[e-mail]>
 o [e-mail]
 o Andy Gillanders <[e-mail]>
 o Davide Anguita <[e-mail]>
 o Avraam Pouliakis <[e-mail]>
 o Kim L. Blackwell <[e-mail]>
 o Mohammad Bahrami <[e-mail]>
 o Paul Bakker <[e-mail]>
 o Stefan Bergdoll <[e-mail]>
 o Jamshed Bharucha <[e-mail]>
 o Carl M. Cook <[e-mail]>
 o Yijun Cai <[e-mail]>
 o L. Leon Campbell <[e-mail]>
 o Cindy Hitchcock <[e-mail]>
 o Clare G. Gallagher <[e-mail]>
 o Craig Watson <[e-mail]>
 o Yaron Danon <[e-mail]>
 o David Ewing <[e-mail]>
 o David DeMers <[e-mail]>
 o Denni Rognvaldsson <[e-mail]>
 o Duane Highley <[e-mail]>
 o [e-mail]
 o DJ Meyer <[e-mail]>
 o Donald Tveter <[e-mail]>
 o Daniel Tauritz <[e-mail]>
 o Wlodzislaw Duch <[e-mail]>
 o E. Robert Tisdale <[e-mail]>
 o Athanasios Episcopos <[e-mail]>
 o Frank Schnorrenberg <[e-mail]>
 o Gary Lawrence Murphy <[e-mail]>
 o [e-mail]
 o Lee Giles <[e-mail]>
 o Glen Clark <opto![e-mail]>
 o Phil Goodman <[e-mail]>
 o [e-mail]
 o Horace A. Vallas, Jr. <[e-mail]>
 o Joerg Heitkoetter <[e-mail]>
 o Ralf Hohenstein <[e-mail]>
 o Gamze Erten <[e-mail]>
 o Ed Rosenfeld <[e-mail]>
 o Franco Insana <[e-mail]>
 o Janne Sinkkonen <[e-mail]>
 o Javier Blasco-Alberto <[e-mail]>
 o Jean-Denis Muller <[e-mail]>
 o Jeff Harpster <uu0979![e-mail]>
 o Jonathan Kamens <[e-mail]>
 o J.J. Merelo <[e-mail]>
 o Dr. Jacek Zurada <[e-mail]>
 o Jon Gunnar Solheim <[e-mail]>
 o Josef Nelissen <[e-mail]>
 o Joey Rogers <[e-mail]>
 o Subhash Kak <[e-mail]>
 o Ken Karnofsky <[e-mail]>
 o [e-mail]
 o Luke Koops <[e-mail]>
 o Kurt Hornik <[e-mail]>
 o Clark Lindsey <[e-mail]>
 o William Mackeown <[e-mail]>
 o Maria Dolores Soriano Lopez <[e-mail]>
 o Mark Plumbley <[e-mail]>
 o Peter Marvit <[e-mail]>
 o [e-mail]
 o Miguel A. Carreira-Perpinan<[e-mail]>
 o Yoshiro Miyata <[e-mail]>
 o Madhav Moganti <[e-mail]>
 o Jyrki Alakuijala <[e-mail]>
 o Jean-Denis Muller <[e-mail]>
 o Michael Reiss <[e-mail]>
 o [e-mail]
 o Maciek Sitnik <[e-mail]>
 o R. Steven Rainwater <[e-mail]>
 o Nigel Dodd <[e-mail]>
 o Barry Dunmall <[e-mail]>
 o Paolo Ienne <[e-mail]>
 o Paul Keller <[e-mail]>
 o Pierre v.d. Laar <[e-mail]>
 o Michael Plonski <[e-mail]>
 o Lutz Prechelt <[e-mail]> [creator of FAQ]
 o Richard Andrew Miles Outerbridge <[e-mail]>
 o Rand Dixon <[e-mail]>
 o Robin L. Getz <[e-mail]>
 o Richard Cornelius <[e-mail]>
 o Rob Cunningham <[e-mail]>
 o [e-mail]
 o Randall C. O'Reilly <[e-mail]>
 o Rutvik Desai <[e-mail]>
 o Robert W. Means <[e-mail]>
 o Stefan Vogt <[e-mail]>
 o Osamu Saito <[e-mail]>
 o Warren S. Sarle <[e-mail]>
 o Scott Fahlman <[e-mail]>
 o <[e-mail]>
 o Sheryl Cormicle <[e-mail]>
 o Ted Stockwell <[e-mail]>
 o Stephanie Warrick <[e-mail]>
 o Serge Waterschoot <[e-mail]>
 o Thomas G. Dietterich <[e-mail]>
 o [e-mail]
 o Ulrich Wendl <[e-mail]>
 o M. Verleysen <[e-mail]>
 o [e-mail]
 o Sherif Hashem <[e-mail]>
 o Matthew P Wiener <[e-mail]>
 o Wesley Elsberry <[e-mail]>
 o Dr. Steve G. Romaniuk <[e-mail]>

The FAQ was created in June/July 1991 by Lutz Prechelt; he also maintained
the FAQ until November 1995. Warren Sarle maintains the FAQ since December
1995.


Bye

  Warren & Lutz

Previous part is part 6.

Neural network FAQ / Warren S. Sarle, [e-mail]

--

Warren S. Sarle       SAS Institute Inc.   The opinions expressed here
[e-mail]    SAS Campus Drive     are mine and not necessarily
[phone]        Cary, NC 27513, USA  those of SAS Institute.