By 2026 consumption by data centres, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency could be as much as double 2022 levels, according to a recent report from the
Some firms certainly think so, and are drawing on the structure and function of an organ which uses a fraction of the power of a conventional computer to perform more operations faster: the brain. It is a significant development says Tony Kenyon, a professor of nanoelectronic and nanophotonic materials at University College London who works in the field.
The imitation neurons and synapses only activate in a moment of time when they have something to communicate, much the same way plenty of neurons and synapses in our brains only spring into action where there is a reason.And while modern computers are digital – using 1s or 0s to represent data - a neuromorphic computing can be analogue.
Technical challenges, however, remain. Long regarded as a main stumbling block to the advance of neuromorphic computing generally is developing the software needed for the chips to run. In April, the company announced it had brought together 1,152 of them to create Hala Point, a large-scale neuromorphic research system comprising more than 1.15 billion fake neurons and 128 billion fake synapses.