Electronic processor

Reuters reported on August 18 that IBM has developed a microprocessor that the company claims is closest to simulating human brain activity to date.

When Google displays relevant information in the search box based on just a few keystrokes or iPhone predictions for keywords when you type in a message, that's just a very small imitation of what the human brain can do. .

The challenge of 'training' computers works like human brains both in terms of technology and physiology, needing to test the limits of computers as well as the science of human brain research. However, IBM Group researchers say they have achieved a big step forward in combining these two worlds.

The company on Thursday said it has developed two sample chips that can handle data closely to the way people get more information than the chips that supercomputers are currently using.

IBM processors replicate the neural link system in the human brain.

Accordingly, the IMB system can chain links when encountering new information, similar to the way biological nerves work.

In humans or animals, nerve connections between brain cells are automatically performed depending on the process of experiencing the world. The process of identification is mainly due to the formation and acceleration of neural connections. A machine cannot mount electronic tracks. However, it can simulate such a system by 'turning on the sound' with important input signals and reducing attention to other signals.

Dharmendra Modha, IBM's project manager, said they have tried to recreate the functions of the human brain such as emotions, awareness, feelings and perceptions by 'studying the brain backwards'.

'It may take a decade or longer before these chips are put into actual production. But what's important is not what these chips will do, but how they do it , 'said Giulio Tononi, professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, IBM project collaborator. .

"There's still a lot of work to do, but the most important thing is usually the first step ," Tononi said.

These chips marked an important breakthrough in a six-year project called SyNAPSE with the participation of 100 researchers funded about $ 41 million from the Advanced Projects Administration (DARPA). of the US Department of Defense. IBM's work with the project continues and the company recently received an additional $ 21 million from DARPA for its research.