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Brain-inspired computing boosted by new concept of completeness
Hardware modelled on the brain could revolutionize computing, but implementing algorithms on such systems is a challenge. A proposed conceptual framework could simplify implementation, accelerating research in this field.
The next generation of high-performance, low-power computer systems might be inspired by the brain. However, as designers move away from conventional computer technology towards brain-inspired (neuromorphic) systems, they must also move away from the established formal hierarchy that underpins conventional machines — that is, the abstract framework that broadly defines how software is processed by a digital computer and converted into operations that run on the machine’s hardware. This hierarchy has helped enable the rapid growth in computer performance. Writing in Nature, Zhang et al.1 define a new hierarchy that formalizes the requirements of algorithms and their implementation on a range of neuromorphic systems, thereby laying the foundations for a structured approach to research in which algorithms and hardware for brain-inspired computers can be designed separately.
Gerstner, W., Kistler, W. M., Naud, R. & Paninski, L. Neuronal Dynamics: From Single Neurons to Networks and Models of Cognition (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014).