Digital-Analog-Hybrid Neural Simulator: A Design-Aid For Custom-VLSI Neurochips
A. Moopenn, A. P. Thakoor, T. Duong · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1989
A high speed neural network simulator and its use for the dynamics and performance analysis of feedback neural architectures are described. The simulator is based on a semi-parallel, analog-digital hybrid architecture which utilizes digital memories to store synaptic weights and analog hardware for high speed computation. A breadboard system with 8-bit gray scale synapses, designed and built at JPL, is successfully serving as a valuable design test-bed for the development of fully parallel, analog, custom VLSI neurochips, currently underway at JPL. The breadboard hybrid simulator indeed allows a detailed evaluation of hardware potential and limitations in implementing full analog operations in such chips. As an example, the paper presents an analysis of the stability and convergence behavior of a feedback neural network applied to the "Concentrator Assignment Problem" in combinatorial optimization, as studied on the analog-digital hybrid simulator. This has already resulted in a VLSI custom design of a fully parallel, analog neuroprocessor with a powerful "analog prompting" feature, for the high-speed, multiparameter optimization function.