Reconfigurable Low Voltage Analog Realization of Neural Networks

Abstract

At the time of the introduction of first computers, which were called quotelectric brainsquot, there was a popular conception that computers could think, or that such computers would soon be available. But, in reality, even todays computers must be programmed exactly to do the desired task. This thus gave birth to a new field of research called Artificial Intelligence. The field of Artificial Intelligence has gained a lot of progress and the word Artificial Intelligence has been a popular buzzword now for past few decades. Some useful expert systems have been produced in addition to some limited speech and character recognition systems, chess playing programs, piano playing robots and many other systems that perform a specific task, and come under the domain of prudently crafted algorithmic programs. But despite, after coming that far in the field of Artificial-Intelligence, a self-programming computer is far from existence. The best way of judging the intelligence associated with a machine is if in conversing with it, we will be incapable to tell whether we are talking to a human or a machine. Looking into this criterion and what we have achieved thus far, artificial intelligence still seems to be far behind the desired goal. For the design and development of the intelligent system or electronic brain, it makes sense to look into a biological brain: how it works, processes the information and other associated things and then start trying to emulate it. The idea is well followed by the scientists, researchers and designers and the results have led us to the field of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). From the past few decades, the field has seen a lot of ups and downs but pertaining to the applications of the ANN in various fields of the life, the interest of the researchers towards the field is growing exponentially which is evident from the number of journal papers published, conferences held confined to the field itself. In addition, at various educational institutions, the field has found its place as one of the...