Analog Devices,inc.

Shawn Hershey

Benjamin Vigoda

Jeffrey G Bernstein

William Bradley

The process of implementing a belief propagation network in software and/or hardware can begin with a factor-graph-designer who designs a factor graph that implements that network. A development system provides a user with a way to specify a factor graph at a high or abstract level, and then solve the factor graph, or make an instance of the factor graph in software and/or hardware based on the specification. Factor graphs enable designers to create a graphical model of complicated belief propagation networks such as Markov chains, hidden Markov models, and Bayesian networks.

Implementation of factor graphs

Some general aspects relate to systems and methods of analog computation using numerical representation with uncertainty. For example, a specification of a group of variables is accepted, with each variable having a set of at least N possible values. The group of variables satisfies a set of one or more constraints, and each variable is specified as a decomposition into a group of constituents, with each constituent having a set of M (e.g., M&#x3c;N) possible constituent values that can be determined based on the variable values. The method also includes forming a specification for configuring a computing device that implements a network representation of the constraints based on the specification of the group of variables. The network representation includes a first set of nodes corresponding to the groups of constituents, a second set of nodes corresponding to the set of constraints, and interconnections between the first and the second sets of nodes for passing continuous-valued data.

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Jamaica Plain, MA, United States of America

Shawn Hershey