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Generative models on accelerated neuromorphic hardware (arxiv.org)
2 points by godelmachine on Jul 9, 2018 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: A network of pulse-firing artificial neurons figures out likely answers by randomly trying possibilities, running on an analog chip that copies brain-style circuits rather than a normal computer. It recognized and generated images despite the chip's hardware quirks, and ran faster than real time.

Abstract · Accelerated physical emulation of Bayesian inference in spiking neural networks

The massively parallel nature of biological information processing plays an important role for its superiority to human-engineered computing devices. In particular, it may hold the key to overcoming the von Neumann bottleneck that limits contemporary computer architectures. Physical-model neuromorphic devices seek to replicate not only this inherent parallelism, but also aspects of its microscopic dynamics in analog circuits emulating neurons and synapses. However, these machines require network models that are not only adept at solving particular tasks, but that can also cope with the inherent imperfections of analog substrates. We present a spiking network model that performs Bayesian inference through sampling on the BrainScaleS neuromorphic platform, where we use it for generative and discriminative computations on visual data. By illustrating its functionality on this platform, we implicitly demonstrate its robustness to various substrate-specific distortive effects, as well as its accelerated capability for computation. These results showcase the advantages of brain-inspired physical computation and provide important building blocks for large-scale neuromorphic applications.

Akos F. Kungl, Sebastian Schmitt, Johann Klähn, Paul Müller, Andreas Baumbach, Dominik Dold, Alexander Kugele, Nico Gürtler, Luziwei Leng, Eric Müller, Christoph Koke, Mitja Kleider, et al.
arXiv:1807.02389 · cs.NE, cs.ET · submitted Jul 6, 2018 · updated Apr 1, 2020
abstract · pdf · html · This preprint has been published 2019 November 14. Please cite as: Kungl A. F. et al. (2019) Accelerated Physical Emulation of Bayesian Inference in Spiking Neural Networks. Front. Neurosci. 13:1201. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.01201

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