A Multi-Application, Scalable and Adaptable Hardware SOM Architecture

In this work, a scalable and adaptable hardware SOM architecture allowing to execute multiple applications in parallel is presented. The proposed architecture allows to use simultaneously multiple SOM structures with different parameters in order to satisfy multiple applications with different needs. The application switching is done within a clock cycle at the neuron’s level at run time only by analyzing the received input data. The proposed architecture was tested and validated in an image quantization experiment where 6 quantization applications with different parameters (from 6 × 6 to 15 × 15 SOMs with inputs varying from 3 to 12 elements) were performed simultaneously.