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Unpublished Paper
Parallel Complexity of Random Boolean Circuits
Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (2011)
  • Jonathan Machta, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • S. DeDeo
  • S. Mertens
  • C. Moore
Abstract
Random instances of feedforward Boolean circuits are studied both analytically and numerically. Evaluating these circuits is known to be a P-complete problem and thus, in the worst case, believed to be impossible to perform, even given a massively parallel computer, in a time much less than the depth of the circuit. Nonetheless, it is found that, for some ensembles of random circuits, saturation to a fixed truth value occurs rapidly so that evaluation of the circuit can be accomplished in much less parallel time than the depth of the circuit. For other ensembles saturation does not occur and circuit evaluation is apparently hard. In particular, for some random circuits composed of connectives with five or more inputs, the number of true outputs at each level is a chaotic sequence. Finally, while the average case complexity depends on the choice of ensemble, it is shown that for all ensembles it is possible to simultaneously construct a typical circuit together with its solution in polylogarithmic parallel time.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2011
Comments
Prepublished version downloaded from ArXiv. Published version is located at http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-5468/2011/04/P04015 doi:10.1088/1742-5468/2011/04/P04015
Citation Information
Jonathan Machta, S. DeDeo, S. Mertens and C. Moore. "Parallel Complexity of Random Boolean Circuits" Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (2011)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/joonathan_machta/13/