Chip with synthetic brain synapses may expand power of mobiles

MIT researchers successfully create chip with tens of thousand of synthetic brain synapses that could help revolutionize handheld computing. In a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, MIT engineers describe what they're calling a'brain-on-a-chip' which is smaller than a piece of confetti and uses what are known as'memristors' - a portmanteau of'memory'v and'transistors' - which mimic information-transmitting synapses found in the brain. Researchers say the chip, which is made out of alloys of silver and copper, and silicon and is only one square millimeter in size was able to'remember' images and recreate them. Pictures is a close-up view of the neuromorphic'brain-on-a-chip' that uses tens of thousands of memristors, or'memory transistors' The chip was able to recreate pictures of Captain America's shield from'memory' and using far fewer resources than traditional silicon-based chips with normal transistors In one example, the chip was able to reproduce an image of Captain America's shield while in another demonstration it replicated an image of MIT's Killian Court. Both of the reproductions worked more reliably than existing designs for memristors, they say.