Neurotransistor:/spl Gt/MINUSa neuron-like high-functionality transistor implementing intelligence on silicon

The main theme of this paper is not a so-called neural network but a new-architecture intelligent electronic circuit implemented using the neuron-like high-functionality transistor as a basic circuit element. The transistor is a multiple-input-gate thresholding device and is called neuron MOSFET (neuMOS or v MOS for short) due to its functional similarity to a brain cell neuron. The vMOS circuits are characterized by a high degree of parallelism in hardware computation, a large flexibility in hardware configuration and a dramatic reduction in the circuit complexity as compared to conventional integrated circuits. As a result, a number of new concept circuits have been developed. As examples, a real-time reconfigurable logic circuit called flexware and an associative memory conducting fully-parallel search for the most similar are presented. The enhancement in the functionality at a very elemental transistor level is critically important in building human-like intelligent systems on silicon.