Patent ID: 11960990
Assignee: NANOSEMI, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A machine-implemented artificial neural network computing apparatus comprising:
a plurality of nodes, the nodes forming at plurality of layers including an input layer, at least one hidden layer, and an output layer; and
a plurality of links, each link coupling a corresponding source node and a receiving node of the plurality of nodes, the source nodes being in a first layer and the receiving nodes being in a second layer, the source nodes including a first source node and a second source node, and the receiving nodes including a first receiving node and a second receiving node, and the links include separate links coupling the first source node to the first receiving node, the first source node to the second receiving node, the second source node to the first receiving node, and the second source node to the second receiving node;
wherein each link of the separate links is configured to evaluate a respective different piecewise linear function of a value provided by its respective source node to yield a value for its respective receiving node;
and wherein each node of a hidden layer is configured to aggregate values provided by links for which that node is the receiving node of the link, with the first receiving node providing non-linear output resulting, in part, from the piecewise linear functions evaluated on links coupling the first source node to the first receiving node and coupling the second source node to the first receiving node to yield the value for the first receiving node, and the second receiving node providing non-linear output resulting, in part, from the piecewise linear functions evaluated on links coupling the first source node to the second receiving node and coupling the second source node to the second receiving node to yield the value for the second receiving node;
and wherein the computing apparatus comprises computing circuitry for concurrent evaluation of the different piecewise linear functions for the separate links.