Nestor Previews PCI 4000 Recognition Accelerator

Pattern recognition in general, and handwriting recognition in particular, requires a significant amount of processing power. One approach has centered around a software-only solution, while others have marshalled the assistance of a hardware accelerator. Accepting this challenge, Providence, Rhode Island-based Nestor Inc., a proponent of both approaches, has begun previewing its PCI 4000 embedded recognition accelerator.

The PCI 4000 combines up to four of Nestor’s Ni1000 Recognition Accelerator chips on one PCI local-bus, add-in card. Nestor claims that the Ni1000 chip, based on neural network technology, can achieve a network pattern recognition rate of more than 10,000 patterns per second.

The Ni1000 accomplishes this using more than 500 neural processors operating at 16.5 MHz. By employing four Ni1000 processors, the PCI 4000 is estimated to be capable of achieving recognition rates in excess of 40,000 patterns per second.

Nestor recently demonstrated the PCI 4000, developed in cooperation with Alta Technology Corp., at the Association for Information and Image Management Conference in conjunction with a forms recognition application that automatically read, sorted, and indexed printed forms as they were being scanned.

The PCI 4000 operates under rather hefty system requirements, including a Pentium PC running Windows 3.1 with 32 MB of memory. The PCI 4000 card itself requires a single full-length PCI slot.

Nestor is making beta versions of the PCI 4000 available in the second quarter of 1995, with plans for full commercial availability in the third quarter.

Nestor Inc.
David Colinan
1 Richmond Square
Providence, RI 02906
(401) 331-9640 ext. 735
(401) 331-7319 (fax)