Brain-Like Computing or Neuromorphic Computing.

Why in News?

• A team of scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) has recently developed Artificial Synapse for Brain-Like Computing or Neuromorphic Computing.

Highlights

• They have used scandium nitride (ScN), a semiconducting material with supreme stability and Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) compatibility, to develop brain-like computing.
• Neuromorphic hardware aims at mimicking a biological synapse that monitors and remembers the signal generated by the stimuli.
• ScN is used to develop a device mimicking a synapse that controls the signal transmission as well as remembers the signal.
• This invention can provide a new material for stable, CMOS-compatible optoelectronic synaptic functionalities at a relatively lower energy cost and hence has the potential to be translated into an industrial product.
• The traditional computers have physically separated memory storage and processing units. As a result, it takes enormous energy and time to transfer data between these units during an operation.
• On the contrary, the human brain is a supreme biological computer that is smaller and more efficient due to the presence of a synapse (the connection between two neurons) that plays the role of both processor and memory storage unit.
• In the current era of artificial intelligence, the brain-like computing approach can help meet the escalating computational demands.
• Neuromorphic computing has opened the doors to better technology and rapid growth in computer engineering.
• Neuromorphic computing has been a revolutionary concept in the realm of Artificial Intelligence.
• With the help of one of the techniques of AI, (machine learning), neuromorphic computing has advanced the process of information processing and enabled computers to work with better and bigger technology.