By Andrew Grant
Human brainpower has produced a computer chip reminiscent of the human brain.
The new chip, reported in the Aug. 8 Science, scraps the design that formed the basis of decades of computers in favor of an architecture that resembles a bundle of 1 million neurons. Such technology could pinch hit to perform tasks that conventional computers struggle with, such as identifying objects in photos and videos.
“It’s an impressive piece of silicon,” says Stephen Furber, a computer engineer at the University of Manchester in England. “A million neurons on a single chip is a big number.”