Method and apparatus for performing neighborhood operations on a processing plane

Apparatus for performing operations on analog data obtained from a vector of M analog input signals, where M is an integer greater than one, including:

• n.times.M storage elements for temporarily storing analog data, said elements arranged in n rows of M columns each to form an operating plane, each row representing a separate time sample of said input vector, said rows identifiable by n successive integers, the order of said integers indicating the relative time at which said data are sampled,
• means for selectively storing each new sample of said input vector in the row of said storage elements which si presently storing the oldest one of said samples,
• n.times.m sources of weighting information, associated with a process to be performed on a neighborhood of said operating plane, said neighborhood comprising a plurality of elements arranged as a local subset of n rows and m columns of said operating plane, where 1<m<M, each said source of weighting information identifiable by a row and column position within said neighborhood with which it will be used,
• combining means for simultaneously combining said n.times.m sources of weighting information with the analog data in selected n.times.m neighborhoods of said n.times.M operating plane, said combining means adapted to combine each of said n.times.m sources of weighting information with the analog data in the corresponding row and column position within each of said neighborhoods.
• means, responsive to the storage of each new sample and cooperating with said combining means, for associating said sources of weighting information with said analog data in said combining means such that the row order of the weighting information corresponds to the row order of the analog data.

Apparatus for performing operations on analog data obtained from a vector of M analog input signals, where M is an integer greater than one, including:

• n.times.m storage elements for temporarily storing analog data, said elements arranged in n rows of M columns each to form an operating plane, each row representing a separate time sample of said input vector, said rows identifiable by successive integers between 1 and n, the order of said successive integers indicating the relative time at which said data are sampled,
• means for selectively storing each new sample of said input vector in the row of said storage elements which is presently storing the oldest one of said samples,
• n.times.m sources of weighting information, associated with a process to be performed on a neighborhood of said operating plane, said neighborhood comprising a plurality of elements arranged as a local subset of n rows and m columns of said operating plane, where 1<m<M, each said source of weighting information identifiable by a row and column position within said neighborhood with which it will be used, said row positions being identifiable in order by successive integers between 1 and n,
• a set of m processing elements associated with each of said storage elements, each of said processing elements having a first input connected to the output of one of said storage elements in the same row as the storage element with which it is associated, a second input connected to the source of weighting information corresponding to the row and column location within the neighborhood computed by said processing element, and an output,
• means, responsive to the storage of each new sample, for re-associating said sources of weighting information with said processing elements such that the order of the successive integers identifying the rows of storage elements and the order of the successive integers identifying the rows of said sources of weighting information connected to the first and second inputs of said processing elements match,
• means for combining the outputs of all members of all sets of m processing elements within each column in said operating plane.

A parallel process for computing a neighborhood operation on an input vector of analog voltages, said process including the steps of:

• temporarily storing analog data from said input vector in storage elements arranged in n rows of M columns each, where n and M are integers greater than 1, to form an operating plane, each row representing a separate time sample of said input vector, said rows identifiable by successive integers indicating the relative time at which said data are sampled,
• selectively storing each new sample of said input vector in the row of said storage elements which is presently storing the oldest one of said samples,
• providing n.times.m sources of weighting information, where m is an integer greater than one, associated with a process to be performed on a set of neighborhoods of said operating plane, each neighborhood in said set comprising a plurality of elements arranged as a local subset of n rows and m columns of said operating plane, where 1<m<M, each said source of weighting information identifiable by a row and column position within said neighborhood with which it will be used, said row positions being identifiable in order by successive integers between 1 and n,
• re-associating said weighting information with said analog data after the storage of each new ample in a manner so as to match the order of the successive integers identifying the rows of storage elements and the order of the successive integers identifying the rows of said sources of weighting information,
• simultaneously combining each source of weighting information with the corresponding element of stored data within each of said neighborhoods to form a set of intermediate values,
• simultaneously combining said intermediate values associated with each of said neighborhoods to form a set of final outputs, one such output for each neighborhood.

A parallel process for computing a neighborhood operation on an input vector of analog voltages, said process including the steps of:

• temporarily storing analog data from said input vector in capacitive storage elements arranged in n rows of M columns each, to form an operating plane, each row representing a separate time sample of said input vector,
• selectively storing each new sample of said input vector in the row of said storage elements which si presently storing the oldest one of said samples,
• providing n.times.m sources of voltage representing weighting information associated with a computation to be performed on a set of neighborhoods of said operating plane, each neighborhood in said set comprising a plurality of said storage elements arranged as a local subset of n rows and m columns of said operating plane, where 1<m<M, each said source of weighting information identifiable by a row and column position within said neighborhood with which it will be used,
• distributing the output of each said source of weighting information on a conductor passing along the row containing the processing elements with which it will be used,
• simultaneously combining in a plurality of processing elements each source of weighting information with the corresponding element of stored data within each of said neighborhoods to form an output current,
• simultaneously summing the output currents associated with all processing elements of each said neighborhoods to form a set of final output currents, one such output current for each neighborhood.