Brain power - A model of the human brain could lead to massively parallel computing with faster, more reliable processors

摘要

THE WAY in which systems of neurons in the brain interact as a network could become the inspiration for million-processor parallel computer architectures. The universal spiking neural network architecture (SpiNNaker) project seeks to mimic the brain's structure and function to offer massively parallel computing coupled with inbuilt redundancy that would make processors faster and more reliable. The project, led by Manchester University computing pioneer Prof Steve Furber with contributions from Sheffield, Southampton and Cambridge Universities, has more than ?5m funding from the EPSRC's Large Grant Panel. It is one of a number of projects underway around the world that are seeking to continue the exponential increases in processing power set out in Moore's Law.