IBM Research and five universities are working together to create computing systems that simulate and emulate the human brain. The computers would match the brain’s abilities while rivaling its low power consumption and compact size. With inspiration from the structure, dynamics, function, and behavior of the brain, the research team aims to break the conventional programmable machine approach.
“Exploratory research is in the fabric of IBM’s DNA,” said Josephine Cheng, IBM Fellow and vice president of IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif. “We believe that our cognitive computing initiative will help shape the future of computing in a significant way, bringing to bear new technologies that we haven’t even begun to imagine.”
IBM and its collaborators have been awarded $4.9 million in funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Their initial research will focus on demonstrating nanoscale, low power synapse-like devices and on uncovering the functional microcircuits of the brain. The long-term goal of the project is to demonstrate low-power, compact computers that approach mammalian-scale intelligence.
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IBM Seeks to Build the Computer of the Future Based on Insights from the Brain (press release)