SoylentNews

takyon writes in with a an article from HPCWire about a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Air Force to researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The grant will fund research into the potential of neuromorphic computing in next-generation supercomputers. The researchers will use their own AMOS supercomputer to simulate various designs for hybrid supercomputers that incorporate classical and neuromorphic processors.

HPCwire separately published this analysis of the project which credits IBM's TrueNorth chip for sparking significant interest in the field of neuromorphic computing. Unveiled last year, TrueNorth currently integrates 5.4 billion transistors and 4,096 cores into a 28nm-process chip with a power consumption of just 70 mW, and is capable of simulating "one million individually programmable neurons". Hybrid supercomputing could mirror the recent trend towards mixed computing systems, in which CPUs are paired with general-purpose GPUs and coprocessors such as Intel's Xeon Phi.

From the HPCWire announcement article:

"The question we're asking is: What if future supercomputer designs were to have several embedded neuromorphic processors?" said Christopher Carothers, director of the Center for Computational Innovations, in the official announcement. "How would you design that computer? And what new capabilities would it offer?"

Neuromorphic computing is built on a computational model patterned on the human brain, incorporating an interconnected network of nodes or “neurons” that make it possible to encode information far more efficiently than classic computer chips. Computers that incorporate a neuromorphic approach excel at pattern recognition, with far less energy usage (and heat) than conventional chips, and have the potential to overcome looming barriers to increased computing speed.

Although computer scientists have used algorithms to approximate neuromorphic computing (an approach commonly called a “neural net”), IBM only recently built this first neuromorphic chip as part of a DARPA-funded research effort. The Rensselaer researchers will base their work on the specifications of IBM’s “True North” neuromorphic processor and simulation development kit.