PDP++ v. 2.1 released!

["Randall C. O'Reilly" <oreilly@grey.colorado.edu>]

Ok v. 2.1 of PDP++ is finally ready.. all the binaries and everything
are ready for downloading.  Here's the announcement.  See the web page
for more details on the new features.

				- Randy

	     ANNOUNCING: The PDP++ Software, version 2.1

Authors: Randall C. O'Reilly, Chadley K. Dawson, and James L. McClelland

The PDP++ software is a neural-network simulation system written
in C++.  It represents the next generation of the PDP software
released with the McClelland and Rumelhart "Explorations in Parallel
Distributed Processing Handbook", MIT Press, 1987.  It is easy enough
for novice users, but very powerful and flexible for research use.

The current version is 2.1, released September, 2001, which contains
some important new features, in addition to the usual bugfixes.

The software can be obtained by anonymous ftp from:
Anonymous FTP Site: 	ftp://grey.colorado.edu/pub/oreilly/pdp++ *or*
			ftp://cnbc.cmu.edu/pub/pdp++/		  *or*
			unix.hensa.ac.uk/mirrors/pdp++/

For more information, see our web page:
  WWW Page:   http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/PDP++/PDP++.html

There is a 250 page (printed) manual and an HTML version available 
on-line at the above address.

The new features in 2.1 include:
---------------------------------
  o Mac OSX fully supported, using XFree86 X windows server
  o SMP parallel processing (pthread-based) for several algos
  o Improvements in Project, Enviro GUI's
  o Edit dialogs improved: only relevant fields shown, selective edit
    of data from different dialogs in one, better key input handling
  o Direct analysis of log data via new Analyze menu
  o Duplicate, ChangeType now works for everything: layers, units, sched procs
  o New buttons for easy control of process stepping level
  o Many bug fixes and minor improvements

See the file 'NEWS' for a more detailed summary of changes since
previous release.

Software Features:
==================

  o Full Graphical User Interface (GUI) based on the InterViews
    toolkit.  Allows user-selected "look and feel".

  o Network Viewer shows network architecture and processing in real-
    time, allows network to be constructed with simple point-and-click
    actions.

  o Training and testing data can be graphed on-line and network state
    can be displayed over time numerically or using a wide range of
    color or size-based graphical representations.

  o Environment Viewer shows training patterns using color or 
    size-based graphical representations; interactive configuration.

  o Flexible object-oriented design allows mix-and-match simulation
    construction and easy extension by deriving new object types from
    existing ones.

  o Built-in 'CSS' scripting language uses C++ syntax, allows full
    access to simulation object data and functions.  Transition
    between script code and compiled code is simplified since both are
    C++. Script has command-line completion, source-level debugger,
    and provides standard C/C++ library functions and objects.

  o Scripts can control processing, generate training and testing
    patterns, automate routine tasks, etc.

  o Scripts can be generated from GUI actions, and the user can create 
    GUI interfaces from script objects to extend and customize the
    simulation environment.


Supported Algorithms:
=====================

  o Feedforward and recurrent error backpropagation.  Recurrent BP
    includes continuous, real-time models, and Almeida-Pineda.

  o Constraint satisfaction algorithms and associated learning
    algorithms including Boltzmann Machine, Hopfield models,
    mean-field networks (DBM), Interactive Activation and
    Competition (IAC), and continuous stochastic networks.

  o Self-organizing learning including Competitive Learning, Soft
    Competitive Learning, simple Hebbian, and Self-organizing Maps
    ("Kohonen Nets").

  o Leabra algorithm that combines error-driven and Hebbian learning
    with k-Winners-Take-All inhibitory competition.  Over 40
    research-grade simulations available for this algorithm in
    association with new book: "Computational Explorations in
    Cognitive Neuroscience: Understanding the Mind by Simulating the
    Brain", O'Reilly & Munakata, 2000, MIT Press.

The Fine Print:
===============

PDP++ is copyrighted and cannot be sold for profit by anyone other
than the copyright holders.  However, the full source code is freely
available, and the user is granted full permission to modify, copy,
distribute and use it.  See our web page for details.

The software runs on Unix workstations under XWindows, and under MS
Windows (9X, NT, 2000).  It requires a minimum of 16 Meg of RAM, and
32 Meg is preferable. It has been developed and tested on Linux, Linux
PPC, Solaris, Irix, and HP-UX.  Binaries are available for these
machines. Other machine types will require compiling from the source.

The GUI in PDP++ is based on the InterViews toolkit, which we have
improved and maintained together with Michael Hines (developer of
NEURON).  We distribute pre-compiled libraries for the supported
architectures, along with source code.

The basic GUI and script technology in PDP++ is based on a
type-scanning system called TypeAccess which interfaces with the CSS
script language to provide a virtually automatic interface mechanism.
While these were developed for PDP++, they can easily be used for
any kind of application, and CSS is available as a stand-alone
executable for use like Perl or TCL.

For more information on the details of the software, see our web page.