In plain words: A light-based chip stores connection strengths in a material that changes how it transmits light, then feeds them to neurons that fire when signals pile up, letting many signals share one beam by color. Unlike standalone devices or electric chips, the array classifies images.
Abstract · A Photonic In-Memory Computing primitive for Spiking Neural Networks using Phase-Change Materials
Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) offer an event-driven and more biologically realistic alternative to standard Artificial Neural Networks based on analog information processing. This can potentially enable energy-efficient hardware implementations of neuromorphic systems which emulate the functional units of the brain, namely, neurons and synapses. Recent demonstrations of ultra-fast photonic computing devices based on phase-change materials (PCMs) show promise of addressing limitations of electrically driven neuromorphic systems. However, scaling these standalone computing devices to a parallel in-memory computing primitive is a challenge. In this work, we utilize the optical properties of the PCM, Ge\textsubscript{2}Sb\textsubscript{2}Te\textsubscript{5} (GST), to propose a Photonic Spiking Neural Network computing primitive, comprising of a non-volatile synaptic array integrated seamlessly with previously explored `integrate-and-fire' neurons. The proposed design realizes an `in-memory' computing platform that leverages the inherent parallelism of wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM). We show that the proposed computing platform can be used to emulate a SNN inferencing engine for image classification tasks. The proposed design not only bridges the gap between isolated computing devices and parallel large-scale implementation, but also paves the way for ultra-fast computing and localized on-chip learning.
Indranil Chakraborty, Gobinda Saha, Kaushik Roy
arXiv:1808.01241 · cs.ET · submitted Aug 3, 2018 · updated Oct 24, 2018
abstract · pdf · html · 14 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Physical Review Applied