1. A computing unit in a computing machine, wherein the computing machine performs a plurality of computing operations using the computing unit, the computing unit comprising: a hardware structure that implements networked nodes that receive an input signal and map the input signal to an output signal, wherein nodes in the networked nodes are related by a network of connections between the nodes; a weight matrix input that receives a weight matrix, wherein the weight matrix comprises weights corresponding to the connections; and an activation function input that receives an activation function, wherein the activation function specifies a function for the nodes in the network of nodes, wherein the weight matrix and activation function correspond to a computing operation, wherein the hardware structure maps the input signal though the network of connections in the networked nodes using the corresponding weights of the weight matrix for the connections and the function of the activation function to generate the output signal, the output signal being a result of the computing operation that is determined by the weight matrix and activation function.