IBM's new brain-mimicking chip could power the Internet of Things

IBM has taken another step toward its ambitious goal of creating a processor that acts like a human brain, creating a second, more advanced chip that mimics the way the mammalian brain operates.

“It’s a new landmark of the brain-inspired computers,” said Dharmendra Modha, IBM Research fellow and chief scientist focusing on brain-inspired computing.

Researchers from Cornell Tech helped design this chip as well. The researchers describe the chip in this week’s issue of the Science journal. “Our architecture is designed to approximate the structure and function of the brain in silicon, while being efficient in terms of power,” Modha said.

Once commercialized, such a chip could act as a low-power sensor for a range of embedded and portable devices. “It could become the silicon brain for the ‘Internet of things,’” Modha said. “It could transform the mobile experience as we know it.”