Distressed at the slow speed of your
personal computer? Here
comes a microchip that would give your PC a speed that is 9,000 faster than an
average one. Modelled on the human brain, Neurogrid chip can simulate 1 million
neurons and billions of synapses or brain connections.
That is a vast improvement over previous brain
simulations but still only a fraction of the roughly 80 billion neurons in the
human brain, "From a pure energy perspective, the brain is hard to match.
Not only are personal computers slower, they take
40,000 times more power than the brain to run," said Kwabena Boahen, a
bio-engineer at Stanford University whose brainchild the chip is. Neurogrid has
of 16 custom-designed Neurocore chips in a device the size of an iPad. This can
open up windows into understanding the human brain and developing new forms of
computing patterned after brain circuits. Now, the scientists are working to
adapt Neurogrid for controlling prosthetic limbs for paralysed people. The chip
can translate brain signals into movements of the limb, without overheating the
brain.
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