On September 26th, 2016 a team of scientists from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, announced that they had created an artificial synapse. A synapse is the point where nerve impulses pass between neurons. Dr Joshua Yang, who led the research team believes that this achievement will make it possible for computers to successfully emulate the human brain.
The new technology is an electrical component called a memristor. Dr Yang and his team discovered that a memristor's resistance level is determined by how much electrical charge has passed through it. They found that this mimics the behavior of calcium ions at the junction of two human brain neurons. Dr. Yang and his team believe that this new device could lead to a breakthrough in "brain inspired," or nueromorphic computers.
The human brain has about 100 billion neurons and an estimated 1 quadrillion synapses. Older devices such as transistors and capacitors can work like a synapse, but don't function like a biological system. They don't operate efficiently, create a larger device area, and consume more power. Dr Yang went on to say that with their device, " You don't just simulate one type of synaptic function, but also other important features and actually get multiple synaptic functions together."
No comments:
Post a Comment