NEW LOGIC LSI'S HAVING SOFT HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

集成电路通常被称为硬件，因为它们的功能一旦建立在硅上就不能改变。本研究的目的是开发一种新的软硬件，它可以通过外部控制信号任意改变其功能。基于这种新的电路概念，我们已经为能够执行非常灵活的信息处理的新架构计算机奠定了基础。我们发明和开发的称为神经元MOSFET（vMOS）的高功能晶体管使我们能够探索这种新概念电路。采用双多晶硅CMOS工艺制作了几个测试电路，并对这些概念进行了实验验证。证明了二输入和三输入软-硬件逻辑电路可以根据外部控制信号真实的实时地改变其逻辑功能，如OR、AND、EXOR、EXNOR、INHIBIT、MAJORITY VOTER等。本文还设计了一种具有实时可变窗口的实时数据匹配电路 ...更多信息 只用了10个晶体管。这些电路模块是构成智能数据处理系统的关键元件。此外，还利用vMOS电路开发了一个硬件搜索引擎。硬件可以在没有任何软件操作的情况下找出存储单元阵列中最相似的数据。在传统电路中，搜索最相似的需要非常耗时的顺序数据到数据比较。然而，在vMOS电路中，搜索在硬件上以完全并行的方式执行，从而实现最小延迟。基于vMOS软-硬件电路的智能存储器技术也已发展起来。我们已经开发了一个静态存储器，它将传入的数据量化为多值格式，存储数据，并将它们分类为各种格式，所有这些都在每个存储单元级别。已经开发了一种动态存储器，该动态存储器存储模拟或多值数据并执行与后续输入数据的关联。当这些存储器被合并到搜索引擎中时，将建立智能信息处理系统的新体系结构。少

Integrated circuits are usually called hardware because their functions cannot be altered once they were built on silicon. The purpose of this research is to develop a new Soft Hardware which can arbitrarily change its function by external control signals. Based on such new circuit concept, we have established the foundations for new architecture computers that can perform very flexible information processing.A high-functionality transistor called Neuron MOSFET(vMOS) which we invented and developed has allowed us to explore such new-concept circuits. Several test circuits were fabricated using double-polysilicon CMOS process and the concepts have been experimentally verified. It has been demonstrated that two-input and three-input soft-hardware logic circuits can change their logic functions such as OR, AND, EXOR, EXNOR, INHIBIT, MAJORITY VOTER etc. in real time according to the external control signals. A real-time data matching circuit having real-time variable window has been also d … More eveloped using only 10 transistors. Such circuit blocks serve as key elements to build intellignet data processing systems.In addition, a hardware search engine has been developed also using vMOS circuitry. The hardware can find out the most similar data in a memory cell array without any software manipulation. In conventional circuits, the search for the most similar requires very time-consuming sequential data-to-data comparisons. In vMOS circuitry, however, search is performed in a fully parallel manner on hardware, thus achieving minimum latency. An intelligent memory technology has been developed also based on vMOS soft-hardware circuitry. We have developed a static memory that quantizes the incoming data into multivalued format, memorizes the data, and classifies them into various formats all at each memory cell level. A dynamic memory that memorizes an analog or multivalued data and performs an association with succeeding input data has been developed. When these memories are merged into the search engine, a new architecture for intelligent information processing systems is going to be established. Less