Neuromorphic Computing - An Overview

Abstract

With traditional computing technologies reaching their limits, a new field of computing systems has emerged seeking to follow the example of the human brain into a new era – neuromorphic computing. This paper provides an introduction to neuromorphic computing, why this and other novel new computing systems are needed, and what technologies currently exist in the neuro-morphic field. It begins with a general introduction into the history of traditional computing and its present problems, and then proceeds to a broad overview of neuromorphic systems. It subsequently discusses the main technologies currently in development. For completeness, the paper first discusses neuromorphic-style computing on traditional hardware, and then discusses the two top branches of specialized hardware in this field – neuromorphic chips and photonic systems. Both branches are explained as well as their relative benefits and drawbacks. The paper concludes that the technologies at hand are both very promising. It remains unclear how they will enter the public domain, but their high performance can not be ignored.