Our brains are very energy-efficient.
With just 20 watts of power, the human brain is capable of processing the equivalent of 1 billion calculations per second.
Now, researchers in Australia are building the world's first supercomputer capable of simulating a network of this scale.
The supercomputer, called DeepSouth, was developed by Western Sydney University.
When it goes live next year, it will be able to perform 228 trillion synaptic operations per second, which is comparable to the estimated speed of operations in the human brain.
Hopefully, there is a better understanding of how the brain uses such a small force to process large amounts of information.
If researchers can solve this problem, they could one day create a cyborg brain that is far more powerful than our own. This work also has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of how the brain works.
Andrivan, director of the Centre for International Neuromorphic Systems at Western Sydney University, said: "Our progress in understanding how the brain uses neurons for computation has been hampered by our inability to model brain-like networks on a large scale. ”
He adds: "Simulating a spike neural network with GPUs and multi-core** processors on a standard computer is too slow and too power-consuming. Our system will change that. ”
Cummings, who was not involved in the work at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, told New Scientist that DeepSouth would be a game-changer for neuroscience research.
"If you're trying to understand the brain, this will be the hardware to make that happen," he said. ”
Cummings said there will be two main groups of researchers interested in the technology — those looking at neuroscience and those looking to prototype new engineering solutions in the field of artificial intelligence.
DeepSouth is just one of many research projects aimed at creating a machine that rivals the human brain.
Other researchers are trying to solve the same problem by creating "biocomputers" powered by actual brain cells.
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