Microchip Concept That Mimics Brain Cells Could Change The Future Of Computers

The human brain is often used as model for computers, in terms of its functioning. While computing has been advancing at a rapid pace for the past few decades, it is still nowhere near the capabilities of the human brain, but a new microchip design could change that. A group of researchers from the United Kingdom and Germany have the model for a new microchip which will mimic the functionality of a nerve's synapse in the brain and combine that with the speed of modern processors using light waves to generate optical pulses. "Via a network of neurons and synapses the brain can process and store vast amounts of information simultaneously, using only a few tens of watts of power. Conventional computers can't come close to this sort of performance," Harish Bhaskaran, senior researcher from the University of Oxford and the corresponding author on the paper, said in a statement Wednesday.