Small Universal Spiking Neural P Systems with Astrocytes

Spiking neural P systems with astrocytes (SNPA systems, for short) are a class of distributed parallel computing devices inspired from the way neurons communicate by means of spikes, where also astrocytes are considered, having an excitatory or an inhibitory influence on synapses. Looking for small universal computing devices is a classical research topic in computer science. In this work, we investigate small universal SNPA systems as both devices computing functions and devices generating sets of numbers. Specifically, as devices of computing functions, a universal SNPA system (without delay and forgetting rules) using 57 neurons and 19 astrocytes is obtained; as generators of sets of numbers, a universal SNPA system (without delay and forgetting rules) using 54 neurons and 17 astrocytes is found. These improve previous results on SN P systems without astrocytes and show the role of these features. Key-words: Membrane computing; Spiking neural P system; Astrocyte; Universality; Register machine.