A neural network including a plurality of sub-nets stored in a memory array and a method of operation. Each of the sub-nets includes a corresponding plurality of weights and is individually operable to classify an input vector. A computation unit, including a distance calculation unit and a math unit, is responsive to an input vector comprising input training features for determining a distance between the weights of each sub-net to each of the input features of the input vector and for determining whether the distance is within a particular region of influence. Also described is a parallel process for training the sub-nets.