Neuro-inspired Information Processing

Introduction

The invention of the junction transistor in 1947 was undoubtedly the most significant innovation of the 20th Century, with our day-to-day lives coming to entirely depend on it. Since this date, which we will come back to later, the world has “gone digital”, with virtually all information processed in binary form by microprocessors.

In order to attain the digital world we know today, several steps were essential, such as the manufacture of the first integrated circuit in 1958. It soon became apparent that integrated circuits not only enabled the processing of analog signals, such as those used in radio, but also digital signals. Such digital circuits were used in the Apollo XI mission that led humankind onto the moon, on July 21, 1969. Astronauts only had very limited computing means at their disposal to achieve this spectacular feat. The flight controller was a machine that we might consider very basic by today’s standards. Composed of 2,800 integrated circuits, each comprising two three-input “NOR” gates, 2,048 words RAM¹ and 38,000 words ROM² for programs, it worked at a clock frequency of 80 kHz and weighed no more than 32 kg for 55 W power consumption.

The exploit was thus essentially based on “human” or “cortical” processing of information: processing power, too often advanced today, is not always the sine qua non condition for success!

In order to reduce the weight of processing systems, while improving their performance, it is necessary to incorporate a ...