Integer Echo State Networks: Hyperdimensional Reservoir Computing

We propose an integer approximation of Echo State Networks (ESN) based on the mathematics of hyperdimensional computing. The reservoir of the proposed Integer Echo State Network (intESN) contains only n-bits integers and replaces the recurrent matrix multiply with an efficient cyclic shift operation. Such an architecture results in dramatic improvements in memory footprint and computational efficiency, with minimal performance loss. Our architecture naturally supports the usage of the trained reservoir in symbolic processing tasks of analogy making and logical inference.