Neuromorphic Computing

- An intro to building brains

What is Neuromorphic computing?

"Neuromorphic engineering, also known as neuromorphic computing

started as a concept developed by Carver Mead in the late 1980s,
describing the use of very-large-scale integration (VLSI) systems
containing electronic analogue circuits to mimic neurobiological
architectures present in the nervous system."
simply put...

"Neuromorphic engineering is a new emerging

interdisciplinary field which takes inspiration from
biology, physics, mathematics, computer science and engineering to
design hardware/physical models of neural and sensory systems."
Moore's Law

In 1965, Gordon Moore made a

prediction that would set the pace for
our modern digital revolution. From
careful observation of an emerging trend,
Moore extrapolated that computing
would dramatically increase in power,
and decrease in relative cost, at an
exponential pace. The insight, known as
Moore’s Law, became the golden rule for
the electronics industry, and a
springboard for innovation
Analogy
Biology Machine learning
Analogy
Biology Machine learning

Arbor Connectivity
Analogies

Biology Machine learning

• Neuron • Neuron/Filter/Feature extractor

• Arbor • Connectivity

• Scale • Scale ???

1. ~100B Neurons

2. ~100T connections
Analogies

Biology Machine learning

• Neuron • Neuron/Filter/Feature extractor

• Arbor • Connectivity

• Power • Power ???

• ~20W
Neuromorphic Computing

Neurogrid IBM TrueNorth

Neurogrid

1 16 chip system, which emulates a million

neurons with a billion connection

2 Morphs analog property of neurons of brain by

using sub threshold analog logic

3 Extremely low level transistor circuit that could

emulate the non linearities that are captured by
neurons of brain

4 Asynchronous digital logic for communication

TrueNorth

1 Comes from IBM's cognitive computing division

2 16x times the size of Neurogrid

3 Instead of subthreshold analog, they are

completely digital
Reference

Ben Varkey Benjamin ; Peiran Gao

1 ; Emmett McQuinn ; Swadesh Choudhary
; Anand R. Chandrasekaran ; Jean-Marie
Bussat ; Rodrigo Alvarez-Icaza ; John V.
Arthur ; Paul A. Merolla ; Kwabena Boahen -
Neurogrid: A Mixed-Analog-Digital
Multichip System for Large-Scale Neural
Simulations - Stanford University

2 Wen Ma: Mohammed A. Zidan - Neuromorphic

computing with memristive devices - Springer
journal
Thank you