Chips als imitatie van het brein

ortep schrijft: "Een combinatie van analoog en digitaal heeft een chip opgeleverd die min of meer de hersenen nadoet":

Scientists have developed an electronic circuit that mimics the wiring of the human brain in some ways -- an achievement that could revolutionize computer science and improve understanding of how nature's most powerful processor works.

The circuit, built on a silicon chip the size of a fingernail, is far from the thinking machines of science fiction. For one thing, it cannot learn, the way the brain can.

But researchers say it could result in better speech and object recognition by computers.

"This is a demonstration of what's possible when circuits compute in biological ways," said Rahul Sarpeshkar, a computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on the project. "We're still far away from building a brain."

The findings were published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.[break] En een eindje verder:[/break]And the circuit, like a brain, maintained its selection as the weaker current was increased and the stronger decreased. Another unique aspect of the circuit is that no single element made the decision.

"If you take a Pentium chip and cut a single wire, then it would probably stop functioning," said Richard Hahnloser, another MIT researcher. "If you took our circuit, you could cut a wire and it would still work the same."

It will be at least 50 years before artificial neural circuitry approaches the abilities of the brain and its 240 billion neurons, Sarpeshkar said.

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