IBM Working on Chips to Simulate the Brain

Posted 11/18/2009 at 1:34pm | by Bart Salisbury

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Processors are nearing the point where cramming more into a smaller space isn’t going to work--the laws of physics aren’t going to cooperate. This means a new paradigm needs to be found, and the researchers at IBM moved one step closer to one possibility: mimicking the human brain.

The human brain, while it might not seem so at first glance, is a vastly superior computing machine. Nice to know, since it has perhaps a billion years of evolutionary tinkering to work out the bugs. As such it is an ideal model to emulate: the internal communication structure, low power consumption, and compact size make it incredibly efficient. IBM announced today that it has taken a step closer toward developing a computer which stimulates and emulates the brain’s ability to sense, perceive, recognize, and interact.

The result is a computer with an intelligence level approaching that of a cat. (What, it lays about 90% of the day sleeping, and spends the remaining 10% whining?) The breakthrough by the IBM team, in cooperation with researchers at Stanford University, employs a new algorithm that allows large-scale cortical simulation, and replicates a billion spiking neurons and 10 trillion individual learning synapses.

Joesphine Cheng, an IBM fellow and lab director of the IBM research facility, in a released statement said: “Learning from the brain is an attractive way to overcome power and density challenges faced in computing today. As the digital and physical worlds continue to merge and computing becomes more embedded in the fabric of our daily lives, it’s imperative that we create a more intelligent computing system that can help us make sense the vast amount of information that’s increasingly available to us, much the way our brains can quickly interpret and act on complex tasks.”

Image Credit: Terran Jade/Flickr