IBM's new computer chip mimics the human brain

Consumer Reports News: August 19, 2011 10:08 AM

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IBM has created a computing chip that is designed to mimic how the human brain processes information. IBM is calling its experimental chip the next step toward creating cognitive computers.

The chip is designed to emulate how our brains process information. The goal is to have the chip understand its surroundings and act on things that happen around it, as well as make sense of complex data.

To create new technology as the basis for a computer that could reason instead of just react, IBM first had to map the human brain. IBM created the chip as part of a cognitive computing project called the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE). On its website, IBM describes the project:

By reproducing the structure and architecture of the brain—the way its elements receive sensory input, connect to each other, adapt these connections, and transmit motor output—the SyNAPSE project models computing systems that emulate the brain's computing efficiency, size and power usage without being programmed.

For the second phase of the cognitive-computing project, IBM has teamed up with four universities and the The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This phase of the project will combine principles from nanoscience, neuroscience, and supercomputing, according to IBM's website.

"The computers we have today are more like calculators," project leader for IBM research, Dharmendra Modha, told tech blog VentureBeat. "We want to make something like the brain. It is a sharp departure from the past."

IBM Moves Closer To Creating Computer Based on Insights From The Brain [IBM]
Beyond Machines [IBM]
IBM produces first working chips modeled on the human brain [VentureBeat]

—Maggie Shader