Modelling the Human Brain with specialised CPUs

Part 2: University of Manchester's Professor Steve Furber discusses the design considerations for developing hardware to mimic the workings of the human brain.

The designed hardware, the Arm-based Spiking Neural Network Architecture (SpiNNAker) chip, is being used to understand the working of the brain and for industrial applications to implement artificial intelligence (AI)

Professor Steve Furber

Steve Furber has spent his career researching computing systems but his interests have taken him on a path different to the mainstream.

As principal designer at Acorn Computers, he developed a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor architecture when microprocessors used a complex instruction set.

The RISC design became the foundational architecture for the processor design company Arm.

As an academic, Furber explored asynchronous logic when the digital logic of commercial chips was all clock-driven.

He then took a turn towards AI during a period when AI research was in the doldrums.

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From 8-bit micros to modelling the brain

Part 1: An interview with computer scientist, Professor Steve Furber

Steve Furber is renowned for architecting the 32-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processor from Acorn Computer, which became the founding architecture for Arm.

Arm processors have played a recurring role in Furber's career. He and his team developed a clockless - asynchronous - version of the Arm, while a specialist Arm design has been the centrepiece building block for a project to develop a massively-parallel neural network computer.

Professor Steve Furber

Origins

I arrive at St Pancras International station early enough to have a coffee in the redeveloped St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, the architecturally striking building dating back to the 19th century that is part of the station.

The train arrives on time at East Midlands Parkway, close to Nottingham, where Professor Steve Furber greets me and takes me to his home.

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