SyNAPSE technical
project manager Bill Risk next to the "brain wall."
Each of the
yellow boxes represents one of the cognitive computing chips (256 neurons),
and
close up you'll see them blinking - these are neurons firing.
(August 18, 2011) Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) researchers unveiled a
new generation of experimental computer chips designed to emulate the brain’s
abilities for perception, action and cognition. The technology could yield many
orders of magnitude less power consumption and space than used in today’s
computers.
In a sharp departure from
traditional concepts in designing and building computers, IBM’s first
neurosynaptic computing chips recreate the phenomena between spiking neurons
and synapses in biological systems, such as the brain, through advanced
algorithms and silicon circuitry. Its first two prototype chips have already
been fabricated and are currently undergoing testing.
Called cognitive computers, systems
built with these chips won’t be programmed the same way traditional computers
are today. Rather, cognitive computers are expected to learn through
experiences, find correlations, create hypotheses, and remember – and learn
from – the outcomes, mimicking the brains structural and synaptic plasticity.
To do this, IBM is combining
principles from nanoscience, neuroscience and supercomputing as part of a
multi-year cognitive computing initiative. The company and its university
collaborators also announced they have been awarded approximately $21 million
in new funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for
Phase 2 of the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics
(SyNAPSE) project.