SyNAPSE is the latest project from supercomputer developer IBM and this time it has tried to think outside the box. IBM SyNAPSE is an experimental circuit developed and working more like our own brain thna a regular circuit. Through its new project IBM hopes to get closer to human artificial intelligence.
IBM has focus on how the human brain works and how it has to change the base architecture of logic circuits to make a chip that will work more like ou brain.
IBM got big headlines last year when the supercomputer concept Watson won against two grand champions in Jeopardy. With SyNAPSE (Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics) the company has started from scratch and developed new cognitive circuits that will emulate the sensory, actions and cognitive functions of the brain. It simply interprets impressions and data instead of just working with raw facts.
To succeed it has moved from the classic von Neumann principle and used a potentially more energy efficient architecture where the memory is integrated with the processor to imitate the parallel workload and acting of the brain. Instead of doing a lot of things fast after another, it wats to do billions of calculations at the same time.
“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.”
Scientists believes the company that in 20 years we can see circuits that will fundamentally change how we build computers and to reach this goal IBM has brought together knowledge and experience in nanoscience, neuroscience and super computers that will run for many years developing cognitive computers.
IBM’s goal in the long run is a chip system with tio billion nerv cells and 100 billion synapses, while only consuming a kilowatt of power and only need two liter of space.
It has already shown prototypes of SyNAPSE circuits that was used to test navigation and motion pattern recognition. IBM will work together with univesrity scientists in USA and already has 21 million dollar support from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) before the second phase. In this phase it will build a computer that can not only analyse complex information from different senses, but also reprogram itself to adjust to a new environment and task.
IBM has once again take a great leap toward creating more human circuits and with that in mind one can’t help remember Skynet…
