Totem: A Highly Parallel Chip for Triggering Applications With Inductive Learning Based on the Reactive Tabu Search

Abstract

The training of a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) classifier is considered as a Combinatorial Optimization task and solved using the Reactive Tabu Search (RTS) method. RTS needs only forward passes (no derivatives) and does not require high precision network parameters. TOTEM, a special-purpose VLSI chip, was developed to take advantage of the limited memory and processing requirements of RTS: the final system effects a very close match between hardware and training algorithm. The RTS algorithm and the design of TOTEM are discussed, together with the operational characteristics of the VLSI chip and some preliminary training and generalization tests on triggering tasks.

A Multicriteria Decision Making Environment for Engineering Design and Production Decision-Making

“…This is manily because most combinatorial optimization problems have a very rich internal structure relating the configuration and the value [8]. In the neighborhood the vector containing the partial derivatives is the gradient, and the change of after a small displacement is approximated by the scalar product between the gradient and the displacement [38].…”

Reactive Search Optimization: Learning While Optimizing

“…repeat until no improvement or max CPU time elapsed 3. k ← 1 // index of the default neighborhood 4.…”

“…Applications considered are in the area of pattern recognition (Optical Character Recognition), event triggering in High Energy Physics [3], control of non-linear systems [28], compression of EEG signals [24]. The first product of a joint project between University of Trento, INFN and IRST was the TOTEM chip [16,18], and more general special-purpose VLSI realizations are described in [4,3].…”

“…The first product of a joint project between University of Trento, INFN and IRST was the TOTEM chip [16,18], and more general special-purpose VLSI realizations are described in [4,3]. A parallel neurochip for neural networks implementing the Reactive Tabu Search algorithm and application case studies are presented in [52].…”

“…. 4: the force that a body subjected to the action of a force from another body exerts in the opposite direction 5 a (1): chemical transformation or change : the interaction of chemical entities (2): the state resulting from such a reaction b: a process involving change in atomic nuclei (derived from: Merriam-Webster online dictionary)…”