IEEE Spectrum: IBM Unveils a New Brain Simulator:
"A big step forward in a project that aims for thinking chips
BY SALLY ADEE // NOVEMBER 2009
18 November 2009—Scientists and engineers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center, in San Jose, Calif., announced today at the Supercomputing Conference (SC09) in Portland, Ore., that they have created the largest brain simulation to date on a supercomputer. The number of neurons and synapses in the simulation exceed those in a cat’s brain; previous simulations have reached only the level of mouse and rat brains. Experts predict that the simulation will have profound effects in two arenas: It will lead to a better understanding of how the brain’s architecture leads to cognition, and it should inspire the design of electronics that mimic the brain’s as-yet-unmatched ability to do complex computation and learn using a small volume of hardware that consumes little power......"
(Via http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/ibm-unveils-a-new-brain-simulator.)