Building a Silicon Brain

prostoalex tips us to an article in MIT's Technology Review on a Stanford scientist's plan to replicate the processes inside the human brain with silicon. Quoting: "Kwabena Boahen, a neuroengineer at Stanford University, is planning the most ambitious neuromorphic project to date: creating a silicon model of the cortex. The first-generation design will be composed of a circuit board with 16 chips, each containing a 256-by-256 array of silicon neurons. Groups of neurons can be set to have different electrical properties, mimicking different types of cells in the cortex. Engineers can also program specific connections between the cells to model the architecture in different parts of the cortex."

Comments

Hardly something new...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is hardly something new. Intel had a chip a number of years ago, called ETANN that was a pure-analog neural network implementation. Another cool aspect of this chip was that the weight values were stored in EEPROM-like cells (but analog) so the training of the chip would not be erased if it lost power.

But the whole technology of neural networks almost pre-dates the Von Neumann architecture. Early analog neural networks were constructed in the late 40's.

Not only are these simulations nothing new but they are in every-day products. One of the most common examples is the misfire detection mechanism in Ford vehicle engine controllers. Misfire detection in spark ignition engines is based on so many variables that neural networks often perform better than hard-coded logic (although not always, just like the wetware counterparts, they can be "temperamental").

There are several other real-world neural network applications (autofocusing of cameras for example).

Ahh the hidden magic of embedded systems...

Naturally Intelligent Systems

[TheCouchPotatoFamine]

For those interested in this field, may i suggest a book, Naturally Intelligent Systems? It's slightly older, but it explains a wide gamut of neural networks without a single equation, and manages to be funny and engaging at the same time. it is one of the three books that changed my life (by it's content and ideas alone - i'm not otherwise into AI). highly recommended: Naturally Intelligent Systems on amazon