A reconfigurable architecture for real-time digital simulation of neurons

A major problem in computational neuroscience is the large scale biologically realistic neuron simulations which require massive amount of computing resources, which in turn requires large amount of power. This poses a significant problem when we look towards a potential future where machines have “silicon brains”. In this paper we build on previous VHDL neuron work by building a programmable neuron device housing 116 neurons and 200 synapses to perform realistic, real-time simulations of neuron networks in hardware. This flexible architecture is loaded with the C. Elegans locomotion system that demonstrates that the behavior of the programmable architecture is the same as the behavior of the design from previous work.