'Human brain' supercomputer switched on to unlock secrets of the mind

After 12 years of construction and £15m in funding, a giant computer designed to mimic the human brain is finally ready to be switched on. Built by the University of Manchester, the SpiNNaker machine is made up of one million processors capable of 200 trillion actions per second – meaning it can model more biological neurons in real time than any other machine ever built. Unlike traditional computers, it does not communicate by sending large amounts of information from point A to point B via a standard network. Instead, it mimics the parallel communication architecture of the brain by sending small amounts of information to different destinations simultaneously. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.