Backend

Backend is the core component of the backend of the SPAIC platform and is responsible for the overall running simulation of the network. dt and runtime are the two most important parameters in backend, representing the time step and the length of the time window of the simulation, respectively. And time represents the moment that currently simulated, and n_time_step represents the time step that is currently simulated.

The functions available to users in Backend are:

  • set_runtime – sets the length of the time window, or the length of the simulation

  • add_variable – adds variables to the backend. When customizing the algorithm, you need to add new variables to the Backend

  • add_operation – adds a new calculation formula to the backend for custom algorithms, neurons and other operations, and needs to follow a certain format

  • register_standalone – registers independent operations, mainly used to add some operations that are not supported by the platform to the backend

  • register_initial – registers the initialization operation. The calculation in the initialization operation will be calculated once at the beginning of each time window, instead of every dt as the time step runs.

add_variable

When using add_variable , the parameters that must be added are name 与 shape , and the optional parameters are value , is_parameter , is_sparse , init,

min and max .

name decodes the key when save on the backend，and shape decides the shape, value represent the value，init decides the value that everytime the variable initialized, is_parameter decides whether this variable is trainable or not.

add_operation

When using add_operation , the parameters that must be added is op . op is used to load operations that backend need to calculate. It will put the operation given by users into the computing graph. It is mainly used for custom computation.