
Neuron Digest   Wednesday, 18 Mar 1992
                Volume 9 : Issue 11

Today's Topics:
              CNS BBS Number Change, Simulations Available
            Update to Aspirin 5.0 (1 bug fix, new manual.ps)

Send submissions, questions, address maintenance, and requests for old
issues to "neuron-request@cattell.psych.upenn.edu". The ftp archives are
available from cattell.psych.upenn.edu (128.91.2.173). Back issues
requested by mail will eventually be sent, but may take a while.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: CNS BBS Number Change, Simulations Available
From:    Wesley R. Elsberry <welsberr@sandbox.kenn.wa.us>
Date:    Tue, 04 Feb 92 22:48:00 -0800




              Central Neural System Electronic Bulletin Board

                            Modem: 509-627-6CNS
                         Sysop: Wesley R. Elsberry
                     P.O. Box 1187, Richland, WA 99352
                        welsberr@sandbox.kenn.wa.us

Central Neural System BBS is an electronic online information service
which is dedicated to promoting communication of concepts and code
between Artificial Neural Network researchers and enthusiasts.  CNS has
been online since January, 1989, and has never charged users for access.

There are many files related to ANNs that are available for download.
These include simulation packages (e.g., Greg Tarr's Neural Graphics
simulation and the Back Propagation Simulator from George Mason
University), demos (e.g., Togai Infralogic's Fuzzy and Neural Technology
demo), source code (e.g., Scott Fahlman's Cascade Correlation routines in
C and LISP), tutorials (e.g., my own ADALINE tutorial, with text,
simulation package, and source code), and other text (e.g., Neuron
Digest) and announcements gleaned from comp.ai.neural-nets, Neuron
Digest, and the NEURAL_NET Echo.  Most of the simulations are for IBM PC
compatible machines, but there are simulations for the Macintosh and Unix
boxes as well.

CNS is the home of the NEURAL_NET Echo, a FidoNet backbone echo
(distributed special interest discussion area) available upon request at
any of nearly 7,000 FidoNet and RBBS-Net BBSs across the country and
around the world.

I have made available a mail service for file transfer: if you mail an
appropriate number of MS-DOS formatted disks, a list of files wanted, and
a self-addressed stamped envelope, I will load up the disks and send them
back to you.  This will save on possible long-distance charges.  To get a
list of files, login to CNS, go to the LOGIN file area, and download the
file F347_303.ARJ or SYSTEM.DIR.  These files contain a complete list of
files available from CNS BBS.

There is an ftp mirror site for the CNS ANNSIM file set.  The mirror site
is at me.uta.edu (129.107.2.20) in the /pub/neural directory.  Most ANN
offerings are in /pub/neural/annsim.  The mirror site is run by Dr.
Seiichi Nomura of the University of Texas at Arlington Mechanical
Engineering department.

The Sysop of CNS is willing to accept sponsorship from persons or
institutions willing to provide operating expenses for the dedicated
phone line, or to provide equipment allowing expansion of operation.  A
recent move has greatly reduced the available hard disk space at CNS, so
a dedicated machine with a largish hard disk would be much appreciated
here.  Older technology, like 80286 PC ATs, which you or your company
might be surplusing would be most welcome for expansion of CNS.  Please
contact Wesley Elsberry at the address above if you are interested in
becoming a sponsor.

Use the following communication parameters for connecting to CNS BBS:
eight data bits, one stop bit, no parity; bps rate as 9600 (Courier HST
protocol), 2400, 1200, or 300 bps.

Submission of ANN source code, tutorials, and other informative text is
always appreciated.  The Sysop encourages students, researchers, and
others interested in ANN technology to make their own work available for
the enlightenment of others.

                    Complete ANNSIM Section Directory Listing
                                     as of
                           04:47 Tuesday    4-Feb-92

ADALINE.LZH        49k
    (DOS) ADALINE ANN model tutorial, demo simulation

AIEXP_NN.ARJ      108k
    (DOS) AI Expert's ANN Demo Disk

AIX_NNPP.ZIP       61k
    (DOS) Larry O'Brien's BP with C++ source

ALN.FTP             5k
    (TEXT) How to get ALN via FTP

ANN4TH.LZH         32k
    (DOS) ANN in Forth with Borland C++ source

ANNCAM.ARJ          4k
    (DOS) Content Addressable Memory

APPRENT.REV         3k
    (TEXT) Book blurb for "Apprentices Of Wonder"

APP_DB10.TXT       13k
    (TEXT) ANN, GA Applications Database (open for your input, too)

ARTICLE2.TXT       21k
    (TEXT) An unorganized NN related bibliography

ART_CODE.ANN       23k
    (TEXT) ART 1 2 in C source code

ATARI_BP.FTP        1k
    (TEXT) Atari ST BP simulation available by FTP

ATREE2.LZH        328k
    (WIN 3) Adaptive Logic Networks version 2

AUTONET.ARJ        69k
    (DEMO: DOS) EGA/VGA ANN builder w/ examples

BAM.LZH            31k
    (DOS) Bidirectional Associative Memory Simulation

BATCHNET.ARJ       43k
    (DOS) Three-layer back-prop ANN

BAYES.ARJ           4k
    (DOS) Tree-structured Bayesian belief network

BEIJING.ANC         3k
    (TEXT) 1992 IJCNN in Beijing Announcement

BENCH.ARJ         294k
    (TEXT) CMU Neural Network benchmarks

BPS211.LZH        389k
    (DOS,MAC,UNIX) G. Mason U. BP Boltzmann simulator 2.11

BPSIM2.ARJ         42k
    (DOS, Amiga, Sun) Back-propagation package

BPS_100.ARJ       190k
    (DOS,UNIX,MAC) Back-Propagation Simulation package

BPS_210.LZH        46k
    (DOS) Update for DOS of BPS_100, adds simulated annealing

BRAINOCR.ARJ        3k
    (Brainmaker) PCX reader

BU_CNS.ANC          6k
    (TEXT) Boston U.'s Cognitive and Neural Systems grad program

BVE.ARJ            40k
    (Brainmaker) Variable Evaluator Utility

CASCOR.ARJ        102k
    (TEXT) Cascade Correlation NNs in LISP and C

CNNOE91.WS         19k
    WordStar 5.5 document of Ocean Engineering NN conference

CNS.FTP            11k
    (TEXT) CNS ftp Mirror Site Announcement

CNSANNC.TXT         3k
    (TEXT) CNS BBS description

CNSANNC.WP          5k
    (TEXT) CNS BBS description in WP 5.1

CNSSPON1.TXT        3k
    (TEXT) CNS BBS Sponsorship info

CNSSPON1.WP         5k
    (TEXT) CNS BBS sponsorship info in WP 5.1

CORLITHM.ARJ       10k
    (TEXT) Correlithm theory overview and software modules, some refs

DDJ-AI.ARJ        184k
    Dr. Dobb's AI programs, including SILOAM -- a perceptron ANN

DDJ-APR.ARJ        27k
    Dr. Dobb's programs, including some ANN simulations

DDONG.ABS           5k
    (TEXT) Abstract from Dawei Dong's thesis

DESIRE.ARJ        150k
    (DEMO: DOS) Korn's DESIRE modelling package demo

DOS_ANN.BBS        12k
    (TEXT) Mott Given's list of ANN simulations from BBS's

ET.ARJ             52k
    (DOS) Perceptron simulator

FACESIM.ARJ         8k
    (TEXT) Alice O'Toole's face recognition ANN source code, C FORTRAN

GDELTA.PAS         14k
    (TEXT) Pascal source for BP

GENALG.LZH         33k
    (DOS) A simple genetic algorithm demo program

GENESIS.ARJ        55k
    (UNIX) Genesis Genetic Algorithm package

GENESIS.FTP         3k
    (TEXT) How to ftp latest GENESIS version

GRADSIM2.Z        297k
    (UNIX) Package for time-delay ANNs [compress and tar]

GRADSIMF.Z         47k
    (UNIX) Package for time-delay ANNs, minimal version [compress tar]

GRECC.JOB           4k
    (TEXT) ANN job description

HOPFIELD.ARJ       28k
    Hopfield neural net - need UNIX tar command to uncompress it

ICANN92.CFP         6k
    (TEXT) ICANN*92 Call For Papers

ISSNNETS.001       38k
    (TEXT) ISSNNets Newsletter #1

ISSNNETS.002       56k
    (TEXT) ISSNNets Newsletter #2

JEDI.ZOO           70k
    (DOS) Jet engine simulation system using ANNs

KNOWREP.ARJ        14k
    (TEXT) MIND Workshop on NNs for Knowledge Representation abstracts, etc

KOHSIM24.LZH       21k
    (Unix) Read-Only X11 ANN (Kohonen network)

LVQ_DOCS.LZH       72k
    (UNIX) Learning Vector Quant. sim, 1.00

LVQ_SRC.LZH       281k
    (UNIX) Learning Vector Quant. sim, 1.00

LVQ_UNIX.LZH      269k
    (UNIX) Learning Vector Quant. sim, 1.00

MAC33.HQX         141k
    (MAC) Mactivation 3.3 in Stuffit format

MD2.ARJ             2k
    (DOS) Simple medical diagnosis ANN in BASIC

MEAP.FTP            2k
    (TEXT) How to use the CNS ftp mirror at me.uta.edu

MECH_ENG.LZH       83k
    (PostScript) Stevenson's ANN Mechanical Engineering Applications

MINDNOTE.ARJ       45k
    (TEXT) MIND Meeting Notes

MIND_TXT.ARJ       43k
    (TEXT) MIND Newsletter announcements

MUSIC.ANC           8k
    (TEXT) Music Connectionism book announcement

NASANETS.ARJ      154k
    (TEXT) NETS Version 2.0 by Paul Baffes of NASA in C source

NDV6_0.ARJ        104k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest V6 I:0-9

NERVOUS.ARJ       258k
    (DOS) Nervous System Construction Kit v2 (artificial cockroach)

NETLAB01.ARJ      132k
    (DOS) Netlab v0.1 ANN hardware simulator

NETSTUFF.ARJ       97k
    (DOS) Code to go with the book by Nelson Illingworth

NEURAL.ARJ        136k
    (DOS) Several simulations:  BP, Kohonen, BAM, etc.

NEURAL1.LZH       336k
    (TEXT) Articles on ANN products, tutorials

NEURAL2.LZH       303k
    (TEXT) More ANN articles

NEURALX.LZH        63k
    (DOS) Backprop simulator

NEURON.LZH        115k


NEURONET.LZH       61k
    (DOS) ANN tutorial program for EGA VGA

NEUROSIM.ARJ      109k
    (DOS) Shareware BP Kohonen simulator by author of ET

NEURTTT.ARJ        60k
    (DOS) Neural Network Tic-Tac-Toe demonstration

NEWRULE.BAS         8k
    (TEXT) Gary Coulter's NEWRULE source code, GWBASIC ASCII text

NEWRULE.LZH        32k
    (TEXT) Gary Coulter's NEWRULE BP ANN simulation with GWBASIC source

NEWRULEC.LZH       26k
    (TEXT) Edward Nicol's port to C of Coulter's NEWRULE BP ANN sim.

NEWSTUFF.CNS        4k
    (TEXT) List of newest files on CNS

NG.EXE            136k
    (DOS) Greg Tarr's excellent Neuron Graphics package (>= EGA)

NN2.ARJ            28k
    (DOS) ANN simulator with 256 neurons

NN9109.ARJ         26k
    (TEXT) comp.ai.neural-networks for 91/09

NN9110.ARJ         71k
    (TEXT) comp.ai.neural-networks for 91/10

NN9111.ARJ        103k
    (TEXT) comp.ai.neural-networks for 91/11

NNET.ARJ            4k
    (DOS) NASA Tech Briefs concerning ANN

NNETDRAW.ARJ       48k
    (DOS) ANN BP tutorial with Prolog source

NNETFAQS.LZH       15k
    Frequently Asked Questions on Neural Nets, from USENET comp.ai.neural-nets

NNPARCMP.ANC        6k
    (TEXT) Book announcement, "NN for Parallel Computation"

NNPCTOOL.ARJ      331k
    (DOS) Neural Network PC Tools support software

NN_FTP.LZH         12k
    (TEXT) ANN simulations available via FTP

NN_VLSI.CFP         2k
    (TEXT) Call For Papers: ANN's in VLSI

OID.LZH            62k
    (DOS) ANN object recognition program

OPTI2.ANC           7k
    (TEXT) MIND Workshop: Optimality in bio. artificial NNs, Feb. 6-8

OZ_WKSHP.ANC        5k
    (TEXT) Australian Workshop announcement

PACBRAIN.ANC        5k
    (TEXT) Pan Pacific Brain Science conference announcement

PDNNET.ARJ         59k
    (DOS) PD BP ANN with Turbo C source

PERCEPT.ARJ         4k
    (DOS) Perceptron ANN

PRICAI92.ANC        6k
    (TEXT) Pacific Rim Intl. Conf. on AI

PROF@BU.TXT         2k
    (TEXT) Job search for prof at BU's CNS program

RBPANN.ARJ        5k
    (DOS) Back-prop in C from Rumelhart McClelland

RESRC105.TXT       25k
    (TEXT) Resources for ANN Research, Study, Play

SANTAFE.LZH        10k
    (TEXT) Santa Fe Time Series Competition Announcement

SHADETRE.TXT        7k
    (TEXT) ShadeTree BBS info

SPEECH.JOB          2k
    (TEXT) ANN job announcement

SRC_CODE.LST        1k
    (TEXT) Tells which files on CNS contain source code

S_GROSSB.ARJ        2k
    (TEXT) A Grossberg bibliography

TANN.ARJ          128k
    (DOS) Neural networking kit with examples

TDNN_FOR.FTP        2k
    (TEXT) Where to FTP Time-Delay NN FORTRAN source code

TIERRA.ANC         15k
    (TEXT) Tom Ray's Tierra GA simulation ftp announcement

TOPMAP.ARJ          4k
    (DOS) Kohonen topology preserving maps in Pascal

TTT_ANN.ARJ         6k
    (TEXT) C code for Tic-Tac-Toe neural network

V8I01.ND           24k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest Vol. 8 Issue 01

V8I02.ND           21k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest Vol. 8 Issue 02

V8I03.ND           21k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest Vol. 8 Issue 03

V8I04.ND           27k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest Vol. 8 Issue 04

V8I05.ND           20k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest V8 I05

V8I06.ND           19k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest Vol. 8 Issue 06

V8I07.ND           31k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest V8 I7

V8I08.ND           30k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest V8 I8

V8I09.ND           27k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest V8 I9

V8I10.ND           31k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest V8 I10

V8I11.ND           21k
    (TEXT) Neuron Digest V8 I11

V8I14.ND           28k
    Description not available

V8I15.ND           19k
    Description not available

V8I16.ND           24k
    Description not available

V9I01.ND           20k
    Description not available

WORKABST.MND       23k
    (TEXT) Abstracts from MIND's 4th Annual Workshop

WRE_THES.LZH      254k
    (DOS) Master's thesis, with ANN source, exec, and text.  WR Elsberry


                           Obtaining Files From
                           Central Neural System
                         Electronic Bulletin Board

                             04 February 1992

by Wesley R. Elsberry, System Operator
P.O. Box 1187
Richland, WA 99352

Currently, there are three mechanisms available for acquiring CNS files:
direct dial-up, floppy disk transfer, and anonymous FTP.  The list of
files is available as SYSTEM.DIR in the LOGIN section of the FILE area.

Direct dial-up is accomplished by setting your modem's communication
parameters to eight data bits; one stop bit; no parity; and 300, 1200,
2400, or 9600 (Courier HST) bits per second transfer rate.  Then dial
817-627-6CNS.

Anonymous FTP access is accomplished by following the instructions in the
CNS.FTP file in the ANNSIM section.

File transfer by mailed floppy disk works as follows.  There are three
procedures, please choose one of these (listed here in my order of
preference):

1.      Mail enough MS-DOS floppies to hold the files you want, the list of
        files you want, a self-addressed envelope, and at least one
        Artificial Neural Network tutorial, demonstration program, simulation,
        source listing, or other significant work THAT CNS DOES NOT ALREADY
        HAVE AVAILABLE on floppy.  I'll copy off the file(s) you send to add to
        the CNS holdings, copy over the files you want, and send the disk(s)
        back to you (I'll provide the shipping charges back if you don't).
        Please do not send commercial works that you are not the
        author of, or files for which restrictions on distribution prohibit
        CNS from redistributing the files.

2.      Mail enough MS-DOS floppies to hold the files you want, the list of
        files you want, and a self-addressed and stamped envelope.  I'll copy
        over the files you want, and send the disk(s) back to you.

3.      Send $5.00 US PER MS-DOS floppy disk needed to hold the files you
        request, the list of files you want, and your return address.  I'll
        provide the floppies and shipping.

Please note that I will abide by whatever distribution restrictions are
given in the documentation of each package.  For example, none of the
software distributed by COSMIC can be redistributed outside the USA
(e.g., NASANETS.ARJ).

Requests for floppy disk processing will also be prioritized according to
the procedures given above, with highest priority going to procedure #1,
and lowest to procedure #3.

------------------------------

Subject: Update to Aspirin 5.0 (1 bug fix, new manual.ps)
From:    Russell Leighton <russ@oceanus.mitre.org>
Date:    Thu, 13 Feb 92 09:25:21 -0500


An updated version of the Aspirin/MIGRAINES software replaces the tar
files at the ftp sites (see announcement below).

The following things are different:

 -----> 1. A *MAJOR* (but stupid) bug has been fixed
           in the am2gnuplot, am2math, am2matlab filters.

           ******* This was only manifest on Dec systems *******
           ******** All Aspirin user's should either get *******
           ******** the new distribution or fix it.      *******

           To fix:

                $NNTOOLS/src/tools/bp_tools/ui/am2gnuplot.c
                $NNTOOLS/src/tools/bp_tools/ui/am2math.c
                $NNTOOLS/src/tools/bp_tools/ui/am2matlab.c

                The fix:

                Add "return(1);" to the last line
                in the function: read_am_stream().

                Then type: make -f $MACHTYPE.mk install
                or re-run the installation script (if you
                have already registered by email, please
                don't do it again).

        2. I reTeXed the manual on a NexT. Some people could not
           preview or print the manual.ps file. Now the postscript
           is more portable. The manual.ps file can be previewed
           under ghostscript, but not under pageview (Sun, get your
           act together and fix this piece of @#$%). It should
           print on most postscript printers.

If you are RE-installing Aspirin/MIGRAINES and have already registered by
email, please don't do it again.

Russ

 ------------------- Old Announcement Follows ----------------------


 ------- OFFICIAL RELEASE! All pre-release 5.0 versions should be deleted --

The following describes a neural network simulation environment made
available free from the MITRE Corporation. The software contains a neural
network simulation code generator which generates high performance C code
implementations for backpropagation networks.  Also included is an
interface to visualization tools.

                  FREE NEURAL NETWORK SIMULATOR
                           AVAILABLE

                        Aspirin/MIGRAINES

                           Version 5.0

The Mitre Corporation is making available free to the public a neural
network simulation environment called Aspirin/MIGRAINES.  The software
consists of a code generator that builds neural network simulations by
reading a network description (written in a language called "Aspirin")
and generates a C simulation. An interface (called "MIGRAINES") is
provided to export data from the neural network to visualization tools.

The system has been ported to a number of platforms:

        Apollo
        Convex
        Cray
        DecStation
        HP
        IBM RS/6000
        Intel 486/386 (Unix System V)
        NeXT
        News
        Silicon Graphics Iris
        Sun4, Sun3

        Coprocessors:
                Mercury i860 (40MHz) Coprocessors
                Meiko Computing Surface w/i860 (40MHz) Nodes
                Skystation i860 (40MHz) Coprocessors
                iWarp Cells


Included with the software are "config" files for these platforms.
Porting to other platforms may be done by choosing the "closest" platform
currently supported and adapting the config files.


Aspirin 5.0
===========

The software that we are releasing now is for creating, and evaluating,
feed-forward networks such as those used with the backpropagation
learning algorithm. The software is aimed both at the expert
programmer/neural network researcher who may wish to tailor significant
portions of the system to his/her precise needs, as well as at casual
users who will wish to use the system with an absolute minimum of effort.

Aspirin was originally conceived as ``a way of dealing with MIGRAINES.''
Our goal was to create an underlying system that would exist behind the
graphics and provide the network modeling facilities.  The system had to
be flexible enough to allow research, that is, make it easy for a user to
make frequent, possibly substantial, changes to network designs and
learning algorithms. At the same time it had to be efficient enough to
allow large ``real-world'' neural network systems to be developed.

Aspirin uses a front-end parser and code generators to realize this goal.
A high level declarative language has been developed to describe a
network.  This language was designed to make commonly used network
constructs simple to describe, but to allow any network to be described.
The Aspirin file defines the type of network, the size and topology of
the network, and descriptions of the network's input and output. This
file may also include information such as initial values of weights,
names of user defined functions.

The Aspirin language is based around the concept of a "black box".  A
black box is a module that (optionally) receives input and (necessarily)
produces output.  Black boxes are autonomous units that are used to
construct neural network systems.  Black boxes may be connected
arbitrarily to create large possibly heterogeneous network systems. As a
simple example, pre or post-processing stages of a neural network can be
considered black boxes that do not learn.

The output of the Aspirin parser is sent to the appropriate code
generator that implements the desired neural network paradigm.  The goal
of Aspirin is to provide a common extendible front-end language and
parser for different network paradigms. The publicly available software
will include a backpropagation code generator that supports several
variations of the backpropagation learning algorithm.  For
backpropagation networks and their variations, Aspirin supports a wide
variety of capabilities:
        1. feed-forward layered networks with arbitrary connections
        2. ``skip level'' connections
        3. one and two-dimensional weight tessellations
        4. a few node transfer functions (as well as user defined)
        5. connections to layers/inputs at arbitrary delays,
           also "Waibel style" time-delay neural networks
        6. autoregressive nodes.
        7. line search and conjugate gradient optimization

The file describing a network is processed by the Aspirin parser and
files containing C functions to implement that network are generated.
This code can then be linked with an application which uses these
routines to control the network. Optionally, a complete simulation may be
automatically generated which is integrated with the MIGRAINES interface
and can read data in a variety of file formats. Currently supported file
formats are:
        Ascii
        Type1, Type2, Type3 Type4 Type5 (simple floating point file formats)
        ProMatlab

Examples
========
A set of examples comes with the distribution:

xor: from RumelHart and McClelland, et al, "Parallel Distributed
Processing, Vol 1: Foundations", MIT Press, 1986, pp. 330-334.

encode: from RumelHart and McClelland, et al, "Parallel Distributed
Processing, Vol 1: Foundations", MIT Press, 1986, pp. 335-339.

detect: Detecting a sine wave in noise.

iris: The classic iris database.

characters: Learing to recognize 4 characters independent of rotation.

ring: Autoregressive network learns a decaying sinusoid impulse response.

sequence: Autoregressive network learns to recognize a short sequence of
orthonormal vectors.

sonar: from Gorman, R. P., and Sejnowski, T. J. (1988).  "Analysis of
Hidden Units in a Layered Network Trained to Classify Sonar Targets" in
Neural Networks, Vol. 1, pp. 75-89.

spiral: from Kevin J. Lang and Michael J, Witbrock, "Learning to Tell Two
Spirals Apart", in Proceedings of the 1988 Connectionist Models Summer
School, Morgan Kaufmann, 1988.

ntalk: from Sejnowski, T.J., and Rosenberg, C.R. (1987).  "Parallel
networks that learn to pronounce English text" in Complex Systems, 1,
145-168.

perf: a large network used only for performance testing.

monk: The backprop part of the monk paper. The MONK's problem were the
basis of a first international comparison of learning algorithms. The
result of this comparison is summarized in "The MONK's Problems - A
Performance Comparison of Different Learning algorithms" by S.B. Thrun,
J. Bala, E. Bloedorn, I.  Bratko, B.  Cestnik, J. Cheng, K. De Jong, S.
Dzeroski, S.E. Fahlman, D. Fisher, R. Hamann, K. Kaufman, S. Keller, I.
Kononenko, J.  Kreuziger, R.S.  Michalski, T. Mitchell, P.  Pachowicz, Y.
Reich H.  Vafaie, W. Van de Welde, W. Wenzel, J. Wnek, and J. Zhang has
been published as Technical Report CS-CMU-91-197, Carnegie Mellon
University in Dec.  1991.


Performance of Aspirin simulations
==================================

The backpropagation code generator produces simulations that run very
efficiently. Aspirin simulations do best on vector machines when the
networks are large, as exemplified by the Cray's performance. All
simulations were done using the Unix "time" function and include all
simulation overhead. The connections per second rating was calculated by
multiplying the number of iterations by the total number of connections
in the network and dividing by the "user" time provided by the Unix time
function. Two tests were performed. In the first, the network was simply
run "forward" 100,000 times and timed. In the second, the network was
timed in learning mode and run until convergence. Under both tests the
"user" time included the time to read in the data and initialize the
network.

Sonar:

This network is a two layer fully connected network
with 60 inputs: 2-34-60.
                                Millions of Connections per Second
        Forward:
          SparcStation1:                    1
          IBM RS/6000 320:                  2.8
          HP9000/730:                       4.0
          Meiko i860 (40MHz) :              4.4
          Mercury i860 (40MHz) :            5.6
          Cray YMP:                         21.9
          Cray C90:                         33.2
        Forward/Backward:
          SparcStation1:                    0.3
          IBM RS/6000 320:                  0.8
          Meiko i860 (40MHz) :              0.9
          HP9000/730:                       1.1
          Mercury i860 (40MHz) :            1.3
          Cray YMP:                         7.6
          Cray C90:                         13.5

Gorman, R. P., and Sejnowski, T. J. (1988).  "Analysis of Hidden Units in
a Layered Network Trained to Classify Sonar Targets" in Neural Networks,
Vol. 1, pp. 75-89.

Nettalk:

This network is a two layer fully connected network
with [29 x 7] inputs: 26-[15 x 8]-[29 x 7]
                                Millions of Connections per Second
        Forward:
          SparcStation1:                      1
          IBM RS/6000 320:                    3.5
          HP9000/730:                         4.5
          Mercury i860 (40MHz) :              12.4
          Meiko i860 (40MHz) :                12.6
          Cray YMP:                           113.5
          Cray C90:                           220.3
        Forward/Backward:
          SparcStation1:                      0.4
          IBM RS/6000 320:                    1.3
          HP9000/730:                         1.7
          Meiko i860 (40MHz) :                2.5
          Mercury i860 (40MHz) :              3.7
          Cray YMP:                           40
          Cray C90:                           65.6

Sejnowski, T.J., and Rosenberg, C.R. (1987).  "Parallel networks that
learn to pronounce English text" in Complex Systems, 1, 145-168.

Perf:

This network was only run on a few systems. It is very large with very
long vectors. The performance on this network is in some sense a peak
performance for a machine.

This network is a two layer fully connected network
with 2000 inputs: 100-500-2000
                                Millions of Connections per Second
        Forward:
         Cray YMP               103.00
         Cray C90               220
        Forward/Backward:
         Cray YMP               25.46
         Cray C90               59.3

MIGRAINES
=========

The MIGRAINES interface is a terminal based interface that allows you to
open Unix pipes to data in the neural network. This replaces the NeWS1.1
graphical interface in version 4.0 of the Aspirin/MIGRAINES software. The
new interface is not a simple to use as the version 4.0 interface but is
much more portable and flexible.  The MIGRAINES interface allows users to
output neural network weight and node vectors to disk or to other Unix
processes. Users can display the data using either public or commercial
graphics/analysis tools.  Example filters are included that convert data
exported through MIGRAINES to formats readable by:

        - Gnuplot 3.0
        - Matlab
        - Mathematica

Most of the examples (see above) use the MIGRAINES interface to dump data
to disk and display it using a public software package called Gnuplot3.0.

Gnuplot3.0 can be obtained via anonymous ftp from:

>>>> In general, Gnuplot 3.0 is available as the file gnuplot3.0.tar.Z.
>>>> Please obtain gnuplot from the site nearest you. Many of the major ftp
>>>> archives world-wide have already picked up the latest version, so if
>>>> you found the old version elsewhere, you might check there.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> USENET users:
>>>>
>>>>     GNUPLOT 3.0 was posted to comp.sources.misc.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> NORTH AMERICA:
>>>>
>>>>      Anonymous ftp to dartmouth.edu (129.170.16.4)
>>>>      Fetch
>>>>         pub/gnuplot/gnuplot3.0.tar.Z
>>>>      in binary mode.

>>>>>>>> A special hack for NeXTStep may be found on 'sonata.cc.purdue.edu'
>>>>>>>> in the directory /pub/next/submissions. The gnuplot3.0 distribution
>>>>>>>> is also there (in that directory).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> There is a problem to be aware of--you will need to recompile.
>>>>>>>> gnuplot has a minor bug, so you will need to compile the command.c
>>>>>>>> file separately with the HELPFILE defined as the entire path name
>>>>>>>> (including the help file name.) If you don't, the Makefile will over
>>>>>>>> ride the def and help won't work (in fact it will bomb the program.)

NetTools
========

We have include a simple set of analysis tools by Simon Dennis and Steven
Phillips.  They are used in some of the examples to illustrate the use of
the MIGRAINES interface with analysis tools.  The package contains three
tools for network analysis:

        gea - Group Error Analysis
        pca - Principal Components Analysis
        cda - Canonical Discriminants Analysis

How to get Aspirin/MIGRAINES
============================

The software is available from two FTP sites, CMU's simulator collection
and UCLA's cognitive science machines.  The compressed tar file is a
little less than 2 megabytes.  Most of this space is taken up by the
documentation and examples. The software is currently only available via
anonymous FTP.

> To get the software from CMU's simulator collection:

1. Create an FTP connection from wherever you are to machine
"pt.cs.cmu.edu" (128.2.254.155).

2. Log in as user "anonymous" with password your username.

3. Change remote directory to "/afs/cs/project/connect/code".  Any
subdirectories of this one should also be accessible.  Parent directories
should not be. ****You must do this in a single operation****:
        cd /afs/cs/project/connect/code

4. At this point FTP should be able to get a listing of files in this
directory and fetch the ones you want.

Problems? - contact us at "connectionists-request@cs.cmu.edu".

5. Set binary mode by typing the command "binary"  ** THIS IS IMPORTANT **

6. Get the file "am5.tar.Z"

> To get the software from UCLA's cognitive science machines:

1. Create an FTP connection to "polaris.cognet.ucla.edu" (128.97.50.3)
(typically with the command "ftp 128.97.50.3")

2. Log in as user "anonymous" with password your username.

3. Change remote directory to "alexis", by typing the command "cd alexis"

4. Set binary mode by typing the command "binary"  ** THIS IS IMPORTANT **

5. Get the file by typing the command "get am5.tar.Z"


How to unpack the software
==========================

After ftp'ing the file make the directory you wish to install the
software. Go to that directory and type:

        zcat am5.tar.Z | tar xvf -

              -or-

        uncompress am5.tar.Z ; tar xvf am5.tar

How to print the manual
=======================

The user documentation is located in ./doc in a few compressed PostScript
files. To print each file on a PostScript printer type:
        uncompress *.Z
        lpr -s *.ps

Why?
===

I ave been asked why MITRE is giving away this software.  MITRE is a
non-profit organization funded by the U.S. federal government. MITRE does
research and development into various technical areas. Our research into
neural network algorithms and applications has resulted in this software.
Since MITRE is a publically funded organization, it seems appropriate
that the product of the neural network research be turned back into the
technical community at large.

Thanks
======

Thanks to the beta sites for helping me get the bugs out and make this
portable.

Thanks to the folks at CMU and UCLA for the ftp sites.

Copyright and license agreement
===============================

Since the Aspirin/MIGRAINES system is licensed free of charge, the MITRE
Corporation provides absolutely no warranty. Should the Aspirin/MIGRAINES
system prove defective, you must assume the cost of all necessary
servicing, repair or correction.  In no way will the MITRE Corporation be
liable to you for damages, including any lost profits, lost monies, or
other special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
or in ability to use the Aspirin/MIGRAINES system.

This software is the copyright of The MITRE Corporation.  It may be
freely used and modified for research and development purposes. We
require a brief acknowledgement in any research paper or other
publication where this software has made a significant contribution. If
you wish to use it for commercial gain you must contact The MITRE
Corporation for conditions of use. The MITRE Corporation provides
absolutely NO WARRANTY for this software.

January, 1992


  Russell Leighton                                *     *
  MITRE Signal Processing Center      ***        ***   ***      ***
  7525 Colshire Dr.                 ******       ***   ***    ******
  McLean, Va. 22102, USA           *****************************************
                                           *****    ***   ***        ******
  INTERNET: russ@dash.mitre.org,             **     ***   ***          ***
            leighton@mitre.org                       *     *


------------------------------

End of Neuron Digest [Volume 9 Issue 11]
****************************************
