Scientists from China's Zhejiang University and Hangzhou Dianzi University have created a computer processing chip that works just like the human brain.

The researchers have co-developed the Darwin Neural Processing Unit (NPU), a cutting-edge nueromorphic hardware co-processor that is inspired by biological neural networks such as the central nervous system found in humans and animals.

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The research findings are published online in Science China Information Sciences.

According to the scientists, the human brain is differentiated from the computer in that it has a unique way of dealing with ambiguous information, such as identifying images, understanding audio and visual materials, and coping with naturalistic language.

"It is the dream of computer scientists to design a more electricity-saving, efficient and intelligent computer system by mimicking the structure and mechanism of human neural networks," said Zhu Xiaolei, a doctoral student in the College of Microeletronics, in a statement released by Zhejiang University.

"Darwin" resembles a simplified animal brain and can support as many as 2,048 neurons, more than 4 million synapses, and 15 possible synaptic delays. In recognizing hand-written numbers, the Darwin NPU can achieve similar average latency at a lower clock speed, and slightly better classification accuracy. In decoding Electroencephalogram signals, it also showed higher accuracy.

"One of the challenges in making the Darwin NPU is to achieve large-scale neurons and synapses on a very tiny chip," said Ma De, a doctoral student from Hangzhou Dianzi  University, "With specialized training, the Darwin NPU can familiarize itself with the EGG of the operator. It will make a response by activating corresponding neurons while exposed to familiar external stimuli."

TagsChinese Scientists Create Chip That Mimics Human Brain, Darwin Neural Processing Unit, computer processing chip, Zhejiang University