Australian researchers building world's first human brain-scale computer. It will go online next year

Researchers in Australia are building the world's first brain-scale computer which will go online next year. According to a report by NewScientist last Tuesday (Dec 12), the supercomputer called DeepSouth is being built by the International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems (ICNS) in Sydney in partnership with Intel and Dell. The supercomputer would be built at the Western Sydney University.

Unlike normal computers, DeepSouth's hardware chips are designed to implement spiking neural networks, which model the way synapses process information in the brain, the report said.

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The report added that neuromorphic computers (similar to DeepSouth) have been built earlier but DeepSouth would be the largest yet. This supercomputer would be capable of 228 trillion synaptic operations per second which is on par with an estimated number of synaptic operations in a human brain.

How will DeepSouth be helpful?

Speaking to NewScientist, ICNS member and project lead Andre van Schaik said that while DeepSouth won't be more powerful than any existing supercomputer, it would help advance the understanding of neuromorphic computing and biological brains. "We need this ability to better learn how brains work and how they do what they do so well," Schaik said.

Meanwhile, Ralph Etienne-Cummings from John Hopkins University (who is not part of the project), told the publication that DeepSouth would advance the study of science more quickly as researchers would be able to repeatedly test models of the brain. "If you are trying to understand the brain this will be the hardware to do it on," he said, adding, that two types of researchers would be interested in this- those studying neuroscience or those wanting to prototype new engineering solutions in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Etienne-Cummings also said that the upcoming supercomputer could pave the way for much higher energy efficiency in computing.

What are the key benefits of this supercomputer?

According to a statement released by Western Sydney University, DeepSouth would facilitate super-fast, large-scale parallel processing using far less power. The supercomputer would be scalable allowing for the addition of more hardware to create a larger system or scaling down for smaller portable or more cost-effective applications.

Another crucial benefit of DeepSouth would be in AI. "By mimicking the brain, we will be able to create more efficient ways of undertaking AI processes than our current models," the statement said.