Short Time Decision VLSI Fuzzy Processor

In the recent years numerous examples of industrial and research applications have been done by utilizing Fuzzy Logic. In more details fuzzy processors find most of their applications in control logic fields [1]. Besides that it can be said that once an user has written down some fuzzy rules for describing a particular problem, a related fuzzy algorithm can be created. In general this fuzzy algorithm can be implemented either in SW or HW platforms. Nevertheless, even if Fuzzy Logic is also developing in order to decrease the processing time, the HW/SW implementation of a fuzzy algorithm on commercial fuzzy processors may not give good results in term of speed. Consequently, mainly for high speed applications, dedicated fuzzy processors are required. As far as VLSI implementations [2], many researchers have improved the performances of the HW processors by analog [3], [4], digital [5]-[9] or mixed solutions. The different approaches to the design of the VLSI fuzzy processor architectures are in order to find a trade-off between speed, flexibility and layout silicon area. These are exactly the features we have investigated while designing the architecture of the chip here presented. Particularly, chip dimensions, high speed and membership function shapes have been taken into account during the design feature approach. As far as application fields, the Fuzzy Processor has been designed for future applications in High Energy Physics Experiments (HEPE) fields where high processing rates are a part of the global constraints. In this field a very fast 2 input 1 output fuzzy processor may find many applications as co-processor for problems of particle trajectory recognition.