An argument for abandoning the traveling salesman problem as a neural-network benchmark

In this paper, a distinction is drawn between research which assesses the suitability of the Hopfield network for solving the traveling salesman problem (TSP) and research which attempts to determine the effectiveness of the Hopfield network as an optimization technique. It is argued that the TSP is generally misused as a benchmark for the latter goal, with the existence of an alternative linear formulation giving rise to unreasonable comparisons.