Improving the performance of Kanerva´s associate memory

A parallel associative memory first proposed by Kanerva (1988) is discussed. The major appeal of this memory is its ability to be trained very rapidly. A discrepancy between Kanerva´s theoretical calculation of capacity and the actual capacity is demonstrated experimentally and a corrected theory is offered. A modified method of reading from memory is suggested which results in a capacity nearly the same as that originally predicted by Kanerva. The capacity of the memory is then analyzed for a different method of writing to memory. This method increases the capacity of the memory by an order of magnitude. A further modification is suggested which increases the learning rate of this method