tech report available

[mclennan%MACLENNAN.CS.UTK.EDU@cs.utk.edu]

     ********** DO NOT DISTRIBUTE TO OTHER LISTS **********

The following technical report is available:

                       Field Computation:
         A Theoretical Framework for Massively Parallel
                       Analog Computation
                          Parts I - IV

                         Bruce MacLennan
                 Department of Computer Science
                     University of Tennessee
                            CS-90-100

                            ABSTRACT

This report comprises the first four parts of a systematic
presentation of _field_computation_, a theoretical framework for
understanding and designing massively parallel analog computers.
This theory treats computation as the continuous transformation
of fields:  continuous ensembles of continuous-valued data.  This
theory is technology-independent in that it can be realized
through optical and molecular processes, as well as through large
neural networks.

     Part I is an overview of the goals and assumptions of field
computation.  Part II presents relevant ideas and results from
functional analysis, including theorems concerning the field-
computation of linear and multilinear operators.  Part III is
devoted to examples of the field computation of a number of use-
ful linear and multilinear operators, including integrals,
derivatives, Fourier transforms, convolutions and correlations.
Part IV discusses the field computation of nonlinear operators,
including: a theoretical basis for universal (general purpose)
field computers, ways of replacing field polynomials by sigmoid
transformations, and ways of avoiding higher-dimensional fields
(since they may be difficult to represent in physical media).
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The report is available in PostScript form by anonymous ftp as follows:

unix> ftp cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu  (or, ftp 128.146.8.62)
Name: anonymous
Password: neuron
ftp> cd pub/neuroprose
ftp> get maclennan.fieldcomp.ps.Z
ftp> quit
unix> uncompress maclennan.fieldcomp.ps.Z
unix> lpr maclennan.fieldcomp.ps (or however you print postscript files)
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Hardcopy will soon be available from:  library at cs.utk.edu

For all other correspondence:

Bruce MacLennan
Department of Computer Science
107 Ayres Hall
The University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1301

(615)974-0994/5067
maclennan at cs.utk.edu