Comparator trees for winner-take-all circuits

This paper presents architectures for comparator trees capable of finding the minimum value of a large number of inputs. Such circuits are of general applicability although the intended application for which the circuits were designed is the winner-take-all function of a digital implementation of a neural network based on the self organising map. Mechanisms for reducing delay based on look-ahead logic within individual comparators and mechanisms based on multiplexor architectures of a comparator are compared for both propagation delay and area. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.