AI researchers develop 'Darwin,' a neuromorphic chip based on spiking neural networks

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are a type of information processing system based on mimicking the principles of biological brains, and have been broadly applied in application domains such as pattern recognition, automatic control, signal processing, decision support systems and artificial intelligence. Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are a type of biologically inspired ANN that perform information processing based on discrete time spikes. They are more biologically realistic than classic ANNs, and can potentially achieve a much better performance-power ratio. Recently, researchers from Zhejiang University and Hangzhou Dianzi University in Hangzhou, China successfully developed the Darwin Neural Processing Unit (NPU), a neuromorphic hardware co-processor based on spiking neural networks, fabricated by standard CMOS technology. With the rapid development of the "Internet of Things" and intelligent hardware systems, intelligent devices are pervasive in today's society, providing many services and conveniences to people's lives. But they also raise challenges of running complex intelligent algorithms on small devices.