Overview of CNN research: 25 years history and the current trends

Cellular Neural/Nonlinear Networks (CNN) were invented in 1988, as an easy to implement, easy to program computer architecture for image and signal processing. This initiated intensive international research activities that lead to both theoretical (e.g. universality, stability studies in array dynamics) and experimental results (e.g. cellular sensor-processor chips and cellular algorithms). This overview paper summarizes the history of the CNN research and overviews the current activities in this field. Other areas are also discussed which were fostered by the results of the 25 years of CNN research: memristor architectures and processing, spin-torque oscillator architectures, many-core FPGA processing and industrial vision chips.