Patent ID: 8521669

Claim:
A neural associative memory designed for maintaining associations between memory address patterns and memory content patterns, the memory comprising: a plurality of stored memory address patterns and associated memory content patterns, a Bayesian probability framework, a neural network comprising a set of synapses and sets of pre-synaptic and post-synaptic neurons, the synapses connecting pre-synaptic and post-synaptic neurons, means for accepting an input query pattern, means for accepting a noise distribution describing how the input query pattern deviates from a memory address pattern, means for applying the Bayesian probability framework for determining a most likely output pattern to the input query pattern based on the input query pattern, the stored memory address patterns and associated memory content patterns, and the noise distribution, wherein the Bayesian decision is based on the counter variables M 1 (post-synaptic unit usage), M′ 1 (pre-synaptic unit usage), and M 11 (synapse usage), means for transforming Bayesian probabilities from the Bayesian probability framework into the neural network, a means for optimizing the neural network with respect to the target architecture chosen for implementation, and output means for returning the most likely output pattern to the input query pattern equal or similar to the memory content pattern associated with the memory address pattern most similar to the input query pattern.