The field of “cognitive computing” continues to progress, with IBM announcing this week two prototype cognitive computer chips. The chips are the result of a project involving IBM, Columbia University, Cornell University, the University of California, Merced and the University of Wisconsin, all in the United States, supported by funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). Darpa has said it will commit an additional US$21 million to the project, as the results to date have been sufficiently encouraging. The chips are massively parallel microprocessors that consume very little power. The chips have a new design that is fundamentally different from current computers, and should lead to chips suited for tasks such as pattern recognition and learning on their own. According to Dharmendra Modha, an IBM researcher who is the project leader, “We aren’t there yet, but before long these chips will be able to rewire themselves on the fly.” Modha said the new chips will be adept at absorbing and interpreting huge amounts of data from low-cost digital sensors, such as sensor measurements of air and water temperature, ocean tides, wind patterns, and atmospheric pressure, resulting in more timely and accurate predictions of tsunamis and hurricanes. Cognitive computing is more likely to eventually complement rather than replace conventional computers, and experts say it is still years away from the marketplace. Modha adds, “We’re not trying to build a brain. We’re trying draw inspiration from the brain.”
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/ibm-announces-brainy-computer-chip/