Technology: A Brainy New Chip Could Make Computers More like Humans

Researchers at IBM have developed a new cognitive computing microchip inspired by the brain's computational tricks.

IBM has made two prototypes of the new chip, which it calls a neurosynaptic core. Both are built on a standard semiconductor platform with 256 neurons, the chip's computational components. RAM units on the chip act as synapses; one of the chips has 262,144 synapses, while the other has 65,536. These networks take after the brain in two key ways, says Dharmendra Modha, the project leader at IBM. The hardware for memory and computation are quite close together (as they are in the brain, where neurons are responsible for both) and the connections between them form, strengthen, and weaken based on learning and experience, just like synapses between neurons.

For more, see A Brainy New Chip Could Make Computers More like Humans by Valerie Ross, August 19, 2011 at 80beats.