Combinatorial optimization to search for the best solution across a vast number of legal candidates requires the development of a domain-specific computing architecture that can exploit the computational power of physical processes, as conventional general-purpose computers are not powerful enough. Recently, Ising machines that execute quantum annealing or related mechanisms for rapid search have attracted attention. These machines, however, are hard to map application problems into their architecture, and often converge even at an illegal candidate. Here, we demonstrate an analogue electronic computing system for solving the travelling salesman problem, which mimics efficient foraging behaviour of an amoeboid organism by the spontaneous dynamics of an electric current in its core and enables a high problem-mapping flexibility and resilience using a resistance crossbar circuit. The system has high application potential, as it can determine a high-quality legal solution in a time that grows proportionally to the problem size without suffering from the weaknesses of Ising machines.

为了在众多合法候选人中寻求最佳解决方案的组合优化需要开发一种特定于域的计算体系结构，该体系结构可以利用物理过程的计算能力，因为常规的通用计算机还不够强大。最近，执行量子退火或相关机制以进行快速搜索的Ising机器引起了人们的注意。但是，这些机器很难将应用程序问题映射到其体系结构中，并且即使在非法候选人的情况下也往往会收敛。在这里，我们演示了一个模拟电子计算系统，用于解决旅行商问题，通过其核心中电流的自发动态模仿拟生物体生物体的有效觅食行为，并使用电阻交叉开关电路实现了较高的问题映射灵活性和弹性。该系统具有很高的应用潜力，因为它可以在与问题大小成比例的时间内确定高质量的法律解决方案，而不会遭受Ising机器的缺点。