1. A neural network device with engineered delays for pattern storage and matching, comprising: a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), the FPGA having input and output neurons, each input and output neuron being a physical node on the FPGA, with physical connections between the nodes; wherein the FPGA is adapted to perform operations of: receiving as an input a data stream, the data stream having a string of characters, the data stream received in the FPGA such that at each time t, only a single character is received, with each single character assigned to a neuron in the FPGA; activating the neuron assigned to the single character such that when active, the neuron fires, sending a neuron spike to all connecting output neurons, each neuron spike from the assigned neuron to a connecting output neuron having a delay, where each output neuron that receives a neuron spike sums its receiving neuron spikes to form a neural activation value; storing a pattern of characters, wherein the pattern of characters is represented as a time sequence of neural activations, where each character corresponds to an input neuron; setting a delay of a connection created for each character in the stored pattern of characters to a connecting output neuron depending on an occurrence of each character in the stored pattern of characters; and comparing the neural activation value against a number of connections for the stored pattern of characters to generate a similarity match, such that if the similarity match exceeds a predetermined threshold, the string of characters in the input data stream is identified as the stored pattern of characters.