New Graphics for MITRE Neural Network Simulator

[Russell Leighton]

  	     Attention users of the MITRE Neural Network Simulator
                       Aspirin/MIGRAINES Version 4.0
		
               

Version 5.0 of Aspirin/MIGRAINES is targeted for public distribution
in late summer. This will include a graphic interface which will
support X11, SunView, GL and NextStep. We are able to have such 
an interface because we are using the libraries of a scientific
visualization software package called apE. Users interested in having
this graphical interface should get a copy of apE2.1 **NOW** so that
when Aspirin/MIGRAINES version 5.0 is released it can be used
with the apE software.

The apE software is available from the Ohio Supercomputing Center
for a nominal charge (I believe it is now free for educational
institutions, but I am not sure). Order forms can be ftp'd from
"apE.osgp.osc.edu" (128.146.18.18) in the /pub/doc/info directory.


The Good News:
1. The apE software is free (or nearly free).
2. The apE software is a very portable package.
3. The apE software supports many window systems.
4. You get source with the apE software.
5. The apE tool called "wrench" allows graphical
   programmimg, of a sort, by connecting boxes with
   data pipes. A neural network compute module
   (which A/M can automatically generate) can be
   used in these pipelines with other compute/graphics
   modules for pre/post processing.
6. We can get out of the computer graphics business.
7. Sexy data displays.
8. ApE is a nice visualization package, and the price
   is right.

The Bad News:
1. You need more software than what comes with
   the Aspirin/MIGRAINES distribution (although,
   you can run without any graphics with the 
   supplied software).
2. The apE software is not very fast and uses alot
   of memory.
3. apE2.1 is a big distribution


Other features to expect in version 5.0:
1. Support for more platforms:
	Sun,SGI,DecStation,IBM RS/6000,Cray,Convex,Meiko,i860 based coprocessors,...
2. New features for Aspirin:
	- Quadratic connections (allows hyper-elliptical decision surfaces)
        - Auto-Regressive Nodes (allows each node to have an auto-regressive
          memory, with tunable feedback weights).
        - New file formats


Russell Leighton



INTERNET: russ at dash.mitre.org

Russell Leighton
MITRE Signal Processing Lab
7525 Colshire Dr.
McLean, Va. 22102
USA