Intel reveals chip design based on the human brain - Polidicks

[img]http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/files/87525/Neuromorphic%20Intel.png[/img] [i]The brain is the most extraordinary of computing machines. It carries out tasks as a matter of routine that would fry the circuits of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet: walking, talking, recognising, analysing and so on. [/i] And where supercomputers require enough juice to power a small town, the human brain does all its work using little more than the energy in a bowl of porridge. So its no surprise that computer scientists would like to understand the brain and copy its ability. There's a problem, however. The brain is built from neurons and these work in a rather different way from the silicon transistor-based circuits that lie under the bonnet of conventional chips. [b]Of course, computer scientists can simulate the behaviour of neurons and how they link together on conventional computers. But this is a profoundly wasteful process that is unable to exploit the partallel processing and network effects that the brain clearly makes use of and that eats power in the process. So the race is on to develop a different kind of chip that more accurately mimics the way the brain works. So-called neuromorphic chips must be built from devices that behave like neurons—in other words they transmit and respond to information sent in spikes rather than in a continously varying voltage. (One reason the brain is so power efficient is that neural spikes charge only a small fraction of a neuron as they travel. By contrast, conventional chips keep each and every transmission line at a certain voltage all the time.)[/b] Today, Charles Augustine at Intel's Circuit Research Laboratory in Hillsboro, Oregon, and a few pals unveil their design for a neuromorphic chip. They base their design on two technologies: lateral spin valves and memristors. Lateral spin valves are tiny magnets connected via metal wires that can switch orientation depending on the spin of the electrons passing through them. We've looked at memristors many times on this blog. These are fundamental electronic devices that act like resistors with memory. Augustine and co argue that that the architecture they've designed works in a similar way to neurons and can therefore be used to test various ways of reproducing the brain's processing ability. The icing on the cake, they say, is that spin valves operate at terminal voltages measured in milliVolts, that's significantly less than conventional chips. They claim this translates into a dramatic energy saving. “We show that the spin-based neuromorphic designs can achieve 15X-300X lower computation energy,” they say. (What they actually mean is that they 'tell' us that this kind of saving is possible since there is little in the way of a demonstration in their paper.) They also say the new design is ideally suited for the kind of processing tasks that brains do rather well: analog-data-sensing, cognitive-computing, associative memory and so on. Intel's new chip design certainly looks to be an improvement over existing ones but it is still orders of magnitude away from the computational efficiency that real neurons achieve. [b]Clearly, recent advancements in memristor technology and spintronics are making possible entirely new ways to design chips. However, there's a long way to go before synthetic systems can begin to match the capability of natural ones.[/b] [b]Source: [url]http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428235/intel-reveals-neuromorphic-chip-design/[/url][/b]

[img]http://i.cubeupload.com/aiIJjT.png[/img] Shit, now you mean I have to give it anti-depressants when I want to play a game?

Badass

I still remember that thread ways back where they announced developing this.

About damned time we actually started having developments, this could totally change computing

My computer's going to be cool at one point and then the processor will melt in a second flat.

it is just a bipolar transistor, that's all! No human brain and these type of shit.

How much will this be? IIRC buying a human brain off some dude on the street is less than a processor.

Soon our computers will start watching MTV feeds and gain virtual weight. Calling it.

neuromorphic chips holy shit that sounds cool nevermind all the science stuff, they lot me at "The brain is.." but damn this is awesome

[QUOTE=CYBER_C0WB0Y;36382187]it is just a bipolar transistor, that's all! No human brain and these type of shit.[/QUOTE] You should go back to school and learn to read. The breakthrough here is a circuit based on pulses instead of a constant voltage, which makes them a lot more energy efficient than conventional chips.

[QUOTE=MrEndangered;36381850][img]http://i.cubeupload.com/aiIJjT.png[/img] Shit, now you mean I have to give it anti-depressants when I want to play a game?[/QUOTE] Was going to say the exact same thing. It'll probably activate once Windows 8 installs anyway.

What scale would that picture be in? 30nm or something?

[QUOTE=CYBER_C0WB0Y;36382187]it is just a bipolar transistor, that's all! No human brain and these type of shit.[/QUOTE] You thought they were actually using a human brain?

[QUOTE=CYBER_C0WB0Y;36382187]it is just a bipolar transistor, that's all! No human brain and these type of shit.[/QUOTE] lol

It's amazing how many inventions are based off of nature. Edit: I don't think I phrased that properly, what I mean is that almost every invention is based off of natural designs that have evolved over time.

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;36383077]It's amazing how many inventions are based off of nature.[/QUOTE] Not really, nature is one of the greatest designers because it's had millions of years of evolution to perfect it's designs

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;36383077]It's amazing how many inventions are based off of nature.[/QUOTE] Everything is based off of nature. Everything is nature, or natural.

Great, now my computer is going to have a penchant for misplacing files and forgetting where I left the car keys.

I hope they don't base it off of someone like me... "Faster! Faster! FASTER YOU PIECE OF SHI-- FUCK NOW IT CRASHED!"

God dammit Cyberdyne

Reading this made me imagine my computer with a brand new brain processor. Shit would be cash.

[QUOTE=Jurikuer;36384725]Reading this made me imagine my computer with a brand new brain processor. Shit would be cash.[/QUOTE] The moment it sees your porn stash and accesses the internet it would pull a Skynet.

[QUOTE=Overv;36382501]You should go back to school and learn to read. The breakthrough here is [B]a circuit based on pulses instead of a constant voltage[/B], which makes them a lot more energy efficient than conventional chips.[/QUOTE] Doesn't current consumption happen when the logic/voltage level change? [QUOTE]Significant power is only drawn when the transistors in the CMOS device are switching between on and off states[/QUOTE] [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMOS[/url]

[IMG]http://images.wikia.com/terminator/images/8/85/Trjs67656.jpg[/IMG] ?

They should've just announced it as a new "design based on the human brain" then put a sticker that looks like the human brain on one of their regular chips [IMG]http://i50.tinypic.com/4fvmrp.png[/IMG] [B]"Intel reveals chip design based on the human brain!"[/B]

I might be being a bit of a luddite, but I'm always nervous when they talk about this kind of stuff. I love it when the brain gets compared to computers and comes out on top, in almost every way, and I dread the day that machines will overtake us, first in power, and memory, and then in energy efficiency. The thing is, I'm not entirely sure why, it's more than just a desire for a feeling of superiority, or paranoia of machine revolt, but I can't put my finger on it.

[QUOTE=Bat-shit;36383425]Everything is based off of nature. Everything is nature, or natural.[/QUOTE] Obviously that's not what he means

[QUOTE=Vodkavia;36386010]Machines wont overthrow us unless we give them the emotions that would drive them to do it. Don't worry.[/QUOTE] Knowing our race and the plot of many movies, we will do it sooner or later :v:

Great; now I can replace my brain!