Preface

This document gets you started working with the Numenta Platform for Intelligent Computing (NuPIC in the rest of this document). This preface gives some introductory information.

Topics

Scope of Document
Document Overview
Related Documentation
Conventions
Document History
For More Information

Scope of Document

This document is meant for developers who want to get started using NuPIC.

The focus of the document is to make you productive as soon as possible. The document tells you everything you need to know to implement your first HTM network. The Advanced NuPIC Programming document explains the process of creating, running, and analyzing an HTM Network in more detail. That guide gives multiple options for performing certain tasks and discusses advanced topics such as session management, parallel processing, and schedulers.

Document Overview

This document consists of the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Bitworm: Getting Started Example, gives instructions for running a simple example program (Bitworm) and explains how the example works.
Chapter 2, Developing a Simple HTM, considers the tasks involved in HTM generation.
Chapter 3, Constructing an HTM Network, briefly introduces the components of an HTM Network, then steps you through the process of constructing a network using the Python classes and explains how to save the network to a network file.
Chapter 4, Running the HTM Network, illustrates how train an HTM Network and use the trained network to perform inference.
Chapter 5, Debugging Your HTM Application, gives some tips for what you can do when things aren't working at all and explains how to use visualization tools.

A Glossary and an Index complete the document.

Related Documentation

The companion volume to this document is the Advanced NuPIC Programming, which explores many of the concepts and programming tasks in more depth.

A number of white papers explore in more detail the concepts introduced in this document:

The white paper The HTM Learning Algorithms is an in-depth discussion of how HTM Networks work.
The white paper Zeta1 Algorithms Reference discusses the learning algorithm implemented by the NuPIC Zeta1Node in detail. This includes discussion of all node parameters.
The white paper Problems that Fit HTMs explains which problems are well suited for HTM Networks and which problems are still difficult to solve with today's algorithms.
The Numenta Node Plugin Developer's Guide explains how to develop custom nodes.

Conventions

This document uses the following conventions:

All filenames, code examples, and names of code elements are displayed in code font.
Document names are given in italic font.

This document uses the following icons:

Table 1: Icons used in this document

Icon	Description
	Note. A noteworthy item. If you do not pay attention to a note, nothing bad is likely to happen.
	Warning. If you do not pay attention to a warning, data loss or other problems may result.
	Tip. Paying attention to a tip may make it easier and faster to use Numenta software.

Document History

This section lists changes made in the specified version of the document. Note that document version numbers do not correspond to release numbers.

Document Release	Description
1.0 September 2007	First release.
1.0.1 January 2008	Miscellaneous bug fixes. Added overview of node types to NuPIC tour.

For More Information

The Numenta website includes a variety of educational materials and forums to help you find answers to your questions.

For additional information, see http://numenta.com/for-developers.php.