Choosing the Neural Computing Applications Forum at Cambridge University as its platform, IBM Corp yesterday entered the neural networking business with launch of the ZISC0360 chip, the product of a ú4m development project with Paris-based Neuroptics Consulting SA. The chip uses the Radial Basis Function network and IBM says that theoretically, there is no limit to the number of chips that can be linked together. It is selling the chips singly and also on a board called the Neuro Board 576/ISA, which has 16 of the ZISC processors on it. The ZISC chip has has a zero instruction set and 36 independent processors on each chip, makes it a parallel processor. There are 64 component vectors, each of which is 8-bit and 395,000 transistors. The board is out now and is ú6,250; each chip costs $300, also available now.
