tom@minster.york.ac.uk (04/12/90)
I was reading recently some quite staggering claims for a neural network chip from Intel. It's designated the N64, and performance claims are 2.5 Billion (!!) conn/sec. Details have not yet reached the UK - does anybody have any more info on the N64 ? Apparently, they are collaborating with California Scientific Software for software tool support (BrainMaker ?). tom. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Jackson e-mail tom@uk.ac.york.minster Dept Of Computer Science University of York York. YO1 5DD
steinbac@hpl-opus.HP.COM (Gunter Steinbach) (04/13/90)
I don't have info on the N64 handy, but I just clipped an article from
Electronic Engineering Times (Apr.9,90,p.2) with an even wilder claim.
It is short enough to type in - without permission, of course:
Intel, Nestor plan fastest neural chip
Providence, R.I. - Nestor Inc. and Intel Corp (Santa Clara) have landed
a $1.2 million contract from Darpa to fabricate the world's fastest
neural network microchip. The target speed for the N1000 is 150 billion
interconnections per second. The N1000, to be fabricated in Intel's
EEPROM memory operation, wil have over 1000 neurons, using 250000 EEPROM
cells for its synaptic weights and bias signals.
It will be a single, standalone chip custom-tailored to realize
Nestor's patented neural model, called restricted-coulomb energy (RCE).
A special version of its development system will control a state machine
that allows the chip to learn by programming its EEPROM.
[[ For us Europeans, that's 150*10^9 interconnections/s. ]]
Guenter Steinbach gunter_steinbach@hplabs.hp.com