Zero Instruction Set Computer
Encyclopedia
In computer science
, ZISC stands for Zero Instruction Set Computer, which refers to a chip
technology
based on pure pattern matching
and absence of (micro-)instructions in the classical sense. The ZISC acronym
alludes to the previously developed RISC
(Reduced Instruction Set Computer) technology.
ZISC is a technology based on ideas from artificial neural network
s and massively hardwired parallel processing. This concept was invented by Guy Paillet. It was inspired by his collaboration with Carlo Rubbia
's team for parallel processing, and with Leon Cooper
in the early 90s around the RCE (Restricted Coulomb Energy), a neural network model published by Cooper et al. (1982). RCE was inspired by Bruce Batchelor's (Cardiff University UK) book "Practical Approach to Pattern Classification", especially the "compound classifier".
Guy brought the overall architecture concept in 1993 to the IBM Paris Semiconductor Laboratory, at that time directed by Bernard Denis. The ZISC36 was the first chip developed by Guy Paillet (independent inventor) and Dr. Pascal Tannhof scientist leader of a team of IBM engineers. The first generation of ZISC chip contains 36 independent cells that can be thought of as neuron
s or parallel processor
s. Each of these can compare an input vector of up to 64 byte
s with a similar vector stored in the cell's memory: if the input vector match
es the vector in the cell's memory, the cell "fires". The output
signal
contains either the number of the cell that had a match or the "no matches occurred" indicator.
The parallelism
is the key to the speed of ZISC systems, which eliminate the step of serial
loading and comparing the pattern
for each location. Another key factor is ZISC's scalability
: a ZISC network can be expanded by adding more ZISC devices without suffering a decrease in recognition speed - networks with 10,000 or more cells might become common. Today's ZISC chip contains 78 neurons per chip and can find a match among 1,000,000 patterns in one second operating at less than 50 MHz
.
In August 2007, Anne Menendez and Guy Paillet released the CM1K (CogniMem 1K) which is an evolution of ZISC78 using 1024 neurons to classify an input vector of 256 bytes in up to 10 microseconds. CM1K semiconductor technology is 0.13 micrometres with a die size of 8x8 mm.
Practical uses of ZISC/CogniMem technology focus on pattern recognition
, information retrieval
(data mining
), security and similar tasks.
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, ZISC stands for Zero Instruction Set Computer, which refers to a chip
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
based on pure pattern matching
Pattern matching
In computer science, pattern matching is the act of checking some sequence of tokens for the presence of the constituents of some pattern. In contrast to pattern recognition, the match usually has to be exact. The patterns generally have the form of either sequences or tree structures...
and absence of (micro-)instructions in the classical sense. The ZISC acronym
Acronym and initialism
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters or parts of words . There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms , nor on written usage...
alludes to the previously developed RISC
Reduced instruction set computer
Reduced instruction set computing, or RISC , is a CPU design strategy based on the insight that simplified instructions can provide higher performance if this simplicity enables much faster execution of each instruction. A computer based on this strategy is a reduced instruction set computer...
(Reduced Instruction Set Computer) technology.
ZISC is a technology based on ideas from artificial neural network
Artificial neural network
An artificial neural network , usually called neural network , is a mathematical model or computational model that is inspired by the structure and/or functional aspects of biological neural networks. A neural network consists of an interconnected group of artificial neurons, and it processes...
s and massively hardwired parallel processing. This concept was invented by Guy Paillet. It was inspired by his collaboration with Carlo Rubbia
Carlo Rubbia
Carlo Rubbia Knight Grand Cross is an Italian particle physicist and inventor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Simon van der Meer for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN.-Biography:...
's team for parallel processing, and with Leon Cooper
Leon Cooper
Leon N Cooper is an American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate, who with John Bardeen and John Robert Schrieffer, developed the BCS theory of superconductivity...
in the early 90s around the RCE (Restricted Coulomb Energy), a neural network model published by Cooper et al. (1982). RCE was inspired by Bruce Batchelor's (Cardiff University UK) book "Practical Approach to Pattern Classification", especially the "compound classifier".
Guy brought the overall architecture concept in 1993 to the IBM Paris Semiconductor Laboratory, at that time directed by Bernard Denis. The ZISC36 was the first chip developed by Guy Paillet (independent inventor) and Dr. Pascal Tannhof scientist leader of a team of IBM engineers. The first generation of ZISC chip contains 36 independent cells that can be thought of as neuron
Neuron
A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...
s or parallel processor
Parallel computing
Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently . There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level,...
s. Each of these can compare an input vector of up to 64 byte
Byte
The byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the basic addressable element in many computer...
s with a similar vector stored in the cell's memory: if the input vector match
Match
A match is a tool for starting a fire under controlled conditions. A typical modern match is made of a small wooden stick or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by frictional heat generated by striking the match against a suitable surface...
es the vector in the cell's memory, the cell "fires". The output
Output
Output is the term denoting either an exit or changes which exit a system and which activate/modify a process. It is an abstract concept, used in the modeling, system design and system exploitation.-In control theory:...
signal
Signal (computing)
A signal is a limited form of inter-process communication used in Unix, Unix-like, and other POSIX-compliant operating systems. Essentially it is an asynchronous notification sent to a process in order to notify it of an event that occurred. When a signal is sent to a process, the operating system...
contains either the number of the cell that had a match or the "no matches occurred" indicator.
The parallelism
Parallel computing
Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently . There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level,...
is the key to the speed of ZISC systems, which eliminate the step of serial
Serial communication
In telecommunication and computer science, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are sent as a whole, on a link with several parallel channels...
loading and comparing the pattern
Pattern
A pattern, from the French patron, is a type of theme of recurring events or objects, sometimes referred to as elements of a set of objects.These elements repeat in a predictable manner...
for each location. Another key factor is ZISC's scalability
Scalability
In electronics scalability is the ability of a system, network, or process, to handle growing amount of work in a graceful manner or its ability to be enlarged to accommodate that growth...
: a ZISC network can be expanded by adding more ZISC devices without suffering a decrease in recognition speed - networks with 10,000 or more cells might become common. Today's ZISC chip contains 78 neurons per chip and can find a match among 1,000,000 patterns in one second operating at less than 50 MHz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
.
In August 2007, Anne Menendez and Guy Paillet released the CM1K (CogniMem 1K) which is an evolution of ZISC78 using 1024 neurons to classify an input vector of 256 bytes in up to 10 microseconds. CM1K semiconductor technology is 0.13 micrometres with a die size of 8x8 mm.
Practical uses of ZISC/CogniMem technology focus on pattern recognition
Pattern recognition
In machine learning, pattern recognition is the assignment of some sort of output value to a given input value , according to some specific algorithm. An example of pattern recognition is classification, which attempts to assign each input value to one of a given set of classes...
, information retrieval
Information retrieval
Information retrieval is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web...
(data mining
Data mining
Data mining , a relatively young and interdisciplinary field of computer science is the process of discovering new patterns from large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems...
), security and similar tasks.
See also
- Content-addressable memoryContent-addressable memoryContent-addressable memory is a special type of computer memory used in certain very high speed searching applications. It is also known as associative memory, associative storage, or associative array, although the last term is more often used for a programming data structure...
- Complex instruction set computerComplex instruction set computerA complex instruction set computer , is a computer where single instructions can execute several low-level operations and/or are capable of multi-step operations or addressing modes within single instructions...
(CISC) - Reduced instruction set computerReduced instruction set computerReduced instruction set computing, or RISC , is a CPU design strategy based on the insight that simplified instructions can provide higher performance if this simplicity enables much faster execution of each instruction. A computer based on this strategy is a reduced instruction set computer...
(RISC) - Minimal instruction set computerMinimal instruction set computerMinimal Instruction Set Computer is a processor architecture with a very small number of basic operations and corresponding opcodes. Such instruction sets are commonly stack based rather than register based to reduce the size of operand specifiers. Such a stack machine architecture is inherently...
(MISC) - One instruction set computerOne instruction set computerA one instruction set computer , sometimes called an ultimate reduced instruction set computer , is an abstract machine that uses only one instruction – obviating the need for a machine language opcode...
(OISC) - No-instruction-set-computerNISCNo instruction set computing is a computing architecture and compiler technology for designing highly efficient custom processors and hardware accelerators by allowing a compiler to have low-level control of hardware resources.- Overview :...
(NISC)
External links
- US Patent for ZISC hardware, issued to IBM/G.Paillet on April 15, 1997
- Image Processing Using RBF like Neural Networks: A ZISC-036 Based Fully Parallel Implementation Solving Real World and Real Complexity Industrial Problems by K. Madani, G. de Trémiolles, and P. Tannhof
- From CISC to RISC to ZISC by S. Liebman on lsmarketing.com
- Neural Networks on Silicon at aboutAI.net