Parallel processing circuits for high speed calculation of the dot product of large dimensional vectors

Claim 1

A circuit for calculating a(i)·b(j) where a(i) is the vector (a,(i), a 2 (i) . . . ,a Q (i)),b(j) is the vector (b,(j),b 2 (j), . . . b Q (j)), each a k (i) is a zero or a one, and each b k (j) is a zero or a one, comprising: first memory means for storing digital signals representing a(i); second memory means for storing digital signals representing b(j); a first serial-in-parallel-out barrel shift register for creating the bit planes a(o), . . . ,a(N-1) from the digital signals stored in the first memory means; a second serial-in-parallel-out barrel shift register for creating the bit planes b(o), . . . ,b(N-1) from the digital signals stored in the second memory means; a first OR gate having a first input connected to the first serial-in-parallel-out barrel shift register; a second OR gate having a first input connected to the second serial-in-parallel-out barrel shift register; means for applying a zero or a one to a second input of each of the OR gates; a correlator connected to an output of the first OR gate and an output of the second OR gate; and mean connected to the correlator for summing a plurality of successive outputs of the correlator.