Paralleled hardware annealing in multilevel Hopfield neural networks for optimal solutions

In a multilevel neural network, the output of each neuron is to produce a multi-bit representation. Therefore, the total network size can be significantly smaller than a conventional network. The reduction in network size is a highly desirable feature in large-scale applications. The procedure for applying hardware annealing by continuously changing the neuron gain from a low value to a certain high value, to reach the globally optimal solution is described. Several simulation results are also presented. The hardware annealing technique can be applied to the neurons in a parallel format, and is much faster than the simulated annealing method on digital computers