In this paper, an effective memory-processor integrated architecture,
called memory-based processor array for artificial neural networks (MP
AA), is proposed. The MPAA can be easily integrated into any host syst
em via memory interface. Specifically, the MPA system provides an effi
cient mechanism for its local memory accesses allowed by row and colum
n bases, using hybrid row and column decoding, which is suitable for c
omputation models of ANNs such as the accessing and alignment patterns
given for matrix-by-vector operations. Mapping algorithms to implemen
t the multilayer perceptron with backpropagation learning on the MPAA
system are also provided. The proposed algorithms support both neuron
and layer level parallelisms which allow the MPAA system to operate th
e learning phase as well as the recall phase in the pipelined fashion.
Performance evaluation is provided by detailed comparison in terms of
two metrics such as the cost and number of computation steps. The res
ults show that the performance of the proposed architecture and algori
thms is superior to those of the previous approaches, such as one-dime
nsional single-instruction multiple data (SIMD) arrays, two-dimensiona
l SIMD arrays, systolic ring structures, and hypercube machines. (C) 1
998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.