IBM’s researchers latest breakthrough for the software that powers its computer chips take its inspiration from … your brain.

The company’s researchers in San Jose, Calif., have created what they call a “breakthrough software ecosystem” designed for programming chips whose architecture has been inspired by the way the brain functions. The chips function on low power and are good at applications that the brain can handle, like perception, action, and cognition.


“Architectures and programs are closely intertwined, and a new architecture necessitates a new programming paradigm,” said Dharmendra Modha, the principal investigator and a senior manager at IBM Research. “We are working to create a FORTRAN for cognitive computing chips. While complementing today’s computers, this will bring forth a fundamentally new technological capability in terms of programming and applying emerging cognitive systems.”


IBM researchers have developed a number of breakthroughs aimed at making brain-like computing easier. They created a simulator to demonstrate multithreaded, massively parallel, and highly scalable software running on a network of brain-like cores known as Synapse processors. IBM’s long-term goal is to build a chip system with 10 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses while consuming merely one kilowatt of power and occupying less than two liters of volume.

The software follows a neuron-like model. It is a simple, digital, highly parameterized spiking neuron model. A network of such neurons can sense, remember, and act upon a variety of programming inputs. The programming model simplifies this complex structure, creating a high-level description that is based on composable and reusable building blocks called “corelets.” Each corelet is a blueprint of a network of neurons. The inner workings of the neuron are hidden from the programmer, who only sees its external inputs and outputs. So the programmer can focus on what the neuron does, rather than on how it does it. Corelets are hierarchical. They can be used to create new corelets that are more complex.
