CNNSim: A tiny, fast, crude CNN simulator written in C++

Usage example:

./CNN -s inputs/test_128.png -i inputs/test_128.png -t templates/hollow -d 500 -r 1e-2 -a 1e-1

On certain 32-and-64-bit ("multilib") GNU/Linux distributions, it might be necessary to explicitly specify the runtime library path like this:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib ./CNN -s inputs/test_128.png -i inputs/test_128.png -t templates/hollow -d 500 -r 1e-2 -a 1e-1

The meaning of the parameters is as follows:

• -s, --state: Required. Should point to the name of a PNG file that will be used as the initial state of the CNN.

• -i, --input: Required. A PNG file that will be used as the "input image" (feed-forward). It must have the same dimensions as the state.

• -t, --template: Required. The name of a template file containing at least the following information:

  • A: the feedback matrix
  • B: the feed-forward matrix
  • Z: the bias (also known as I in some contexts)
  • C: the kind of boundary condition, and, if applicable, the value of boundary cells

  For the precise format of template files, see the examples in templates/.

• -d, --duration: Required. Duration (end time) of the simulation.

• -o, --outfile: Optional. Name of the PNG file in which to write the final output. If omitted, the simulation will be animated on-screen.

• -r, --rel-tol: Optional. Relative tolerance of the numerical solution of the state equation. Defaults to 1.0e-3.

• -a, --abs-tol: Optional. Absolute tolerance of the numerical solution of the state equation. Defaults to 1.0e-3.

Other, slightly more complex examples can be found in examples/.

Building

• On Unix-like systems, you can just type make.
• On Windows: who knows? I don't use Windows.

CNNSim requires the following libraries:

• The GNU Scientific Library >= 2.1, libgsl, for numerically solving the dynamic equation
• Simple DirectMedia Layer v2, libsdl2, for displaying the animated result of the simulation on-screen
• The PNG Reference implementation >= 1.6, libpng 1.6, for reading and writing grayscale input and output images