Zero Instruction Set Computer

In computer science, Zero Instruction Set Computer (ZISC) refers to a computer architecture based on pure pattern matching and absence of (micro-)instructions in the classical sense. The ZISC acronym alludes to the previously developed RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) technology.

ZISC is a technology based on ideas from artificial neural networks and massively hardwired parallel processing. This concept was invented by Guy Paillet.

The ZISC architecture alleviates the memory bottleneck by blending the pattern memory with the pattern learning and recognition logic. The main innovation was finding a way to solve the "winner takes all problem" and allows a constant learning/recognition time, regardless of the number of processing elements (e.g. neurons) connected in parallel.

The first ZISC35 with 36 neurons was released in 1993 and the ZISC78 in 2000 both by IBM which discontinued the manufacturing in 2001.

In August 2007,the CM1K (CogniMem 1,024 neurons) was introduced by CogniMem Ltd. CM1K was designed by Anne Menendez and Guy Paillet.

Practical uses of ZISC/CogniMem technology focus on pattern recognition, information retrieval (data mining), security and similar tasks.

Famous quotes containing the words instruction, set and/or computer:

    I turn my gaze
    Back to the instruction manual which has made me dream of
    Guadalajara.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    One might get the impression that I recommend a new methodology which replaces induction by counterinduction and uses a multiplicity of theories, metaphysical views, fairy tales, instead of the customary pair theory/observation. This impression would certainly be mistaken. My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is rather to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits.
    Paul Feyerabend (1924–1994)

    What, then, is the basic difference between today’s computer and an intelligent being? It is that the computer can be made to see but not to perceive. What matters here is not that the computer is without consciousness but that thus far it is incapable of the spontaneous grasp of pattern—a capacity essential to perception and intelligence.
    Rudolf Arnheim (b. 1904)