New neural network chip ignites pattern recognition rethink
Released on: January 16, 2008, 11:10 pm
Press Release Author: Recognetics.Co.,Ltd.
Industry: Electronics
Press Release Summary: CM-1K can be used for machine vision, video analytics, speech recognition, signal recognition or data mining
Press Release Body: New neural network chip adds intelligence to smart sensors
Jan.17, 2008 Suzhou, China -
Recognetics is pleased to announce the availability of CogniMem1K (CM-1K), a neural network chip featuring 1024 neurons working in parallel, and which can be daisy chained to other CM-1K chips to increase the network size. It is an ideal companion chip for smart sensors and cameras and can classify patterns at high speed while coping with ill-defined data and unknown events, and adapting to changes of contexts and working conditions. Depending on the source of the input patterns, CM-1K can be used for machine vision, video analytics, speech recognition, signal recognition or data mining. "CM-1K is a component which has been long awaited by researchers and industries interested in using neural networks to solve real problems. Its performance and affordability should make it an essential enabler for artificial intelligence in our everyday life" says Wo Lin, president of Recognetics.
CM-1K implements two powerful non-linear classifiers (RCE and KNN) in a natively parallel architecture. The tremendous benefit of this architecture is a recognition cycle that remains under 11 microseconds regardless of whether the entire network is composed of one, two or many chips. Brute computational power is equivalent to 27.3 giga operations/second @ 27 MHz for a single chip, twice as much or 54.6 giga operations/second for two chips, and so on. \"The CM-1K represents a major breakthrough in pattern recognition that leverages neural networking technology\", said Jamshed Qamar, Vice President of Customer engineering at ChipX, the company hired for the ASIC design. \"We faced many challenges in implementing this design including the integration of more than 10 million gates, managing power distribution and maintaining signal integrity throughout the chip with 1024 neurons all switching at the same time. Maintaining close timing, with all neurons communicating with each other in less than half a cycle, and enabling multiple chips to be cascaded without impacting performance, further added to the challenge\". High-speed and trainability make CM-1K a practical solution for real-time, distributed, intelligent devices in industrial automation, robotics, security, health monitoring, predictive maintenance, intelligent transportation and more. Also stackability is critical for data mining applications in bioinformatics, medical imaging, satellite imaging, data center management and more.
Recognetics offers a line of evaluation boards for developers and OEMs. The CM-EB, is a base board featuring an Actel FPGA, a USB interface and one CM-1K chip. It allows to evaluate the two classifiers available in CM-1K, the trainability of the neurons, and the knowledge bases built by the neurons. It can also be used to test the optional engine for the recognition of vectors received on the CM-1K digital input bus. Developers can add pre and post-processing functions in the FPGA to condition or generate the vector data and to consolidate or report the results. CM-EB is supplied with a development library and control panel. Additional CM-1K can be added to the board.
A second board, CM-IR, is intended for image recognition delivering up to 60 recognitions per second. It features a Micron CMOS sensor, an Actel FPGA and one CM-1K chip. The video signal is entered directly into the CM-1K digital input bus and a module internal to the chip sub-samples the pixel values into a signature vector. Alternatively, programmers can choose to implement their own signature extraction in the FPGA. In either case, the vector is broadcasted to all of the neurons and the response of the neuron with the best match is available in 11 microseconds. This data can be transmitted over GPIO lines, RS232 or I2C bus. As an option, programmers can condition the results of the recognition in the FPGA prior to transmission. The neurons can be trained in real-time, or a knowledge base can be loaded from a file and saved to a Flash memory so the board resumes recognition autonomously at the next power up. CM-IR can be used for industrial inspection, machine vision, video surveillance, robotics and more. It is delivered with a development library and EasyTrainer software. Additional CM-1K can be added to the board.
Recognetics is the leading provider for fully parallel, high performance pattern recognition semiconductors based on the CogniMem neural network patented technology. Recognetics supplies standard and custom modules designed around CogniMem and suitable for signal processing, speech and image recognition, data mining. For more information about Recognetics, visit http://www.recognetics.com.
Web Site: www.recognetics.com
Contact Details: 80# Xiangyang road,Suzhou new district, China Tel:86-512-68411183 Fax:86-512-68085081 E-mail:dsn@recognetics.com.cn Contact person: Ms.Dai