Intel's Loihi 2 speeds effort to make neuromorphic chips like human brains
05:28AM Sun 3 Oct, 2021
- The chip also is a key product in Intel's plan to reclaim its processor manufacturing prowess.
- Intel's Loihi 2 neuromorphic chip measures 30 square millimeters.
Intel unveiled its Loihi 2 chip on Thursday, the second generation of a processor family that marries conventional electronics with the architecture of human brains to try to inject some new progress into the computing industry. On top of that, the chip also helps Intel advance its own manufacturing technology.
Loihi 2, an example of a technology called neuromorphic computing, is about 10 times faster than its predecessor, according to Intel. The speed improvement is the result of an eightfold increase in the number of digital neurons, a chip equivalent to human brain cells that mimic the way the brains handle information. The chip also can be programmed better to help researchers tackle more computing tasks.
The chip is built with a preproduction version of the Intel 4 manufacturing process, too, an advanced method Intel plans to use to build mainstream Intel chips arriving in 2023. The Intel 4 process can etch electronics more densely on a chip, a crucial advantage for Intel's need to pack a million digital neurons on a chip measuring 30 square millimeters. Loihi chips are particularly good at rapidly spotting sensory input like gestures, sounds and even smells, says Mike Davies, leader of the Intel Labs group that developed Loihi. Some experiments have focused on artificial skin that could give robots a better sense of touch. "We can detect slippage if a robot hand is picking up a cup," Davies said. Neuromorphic computing differs from artificial intelligence, a revolutionary computer technology based more loosely on how brains learn and respond, because it focuses more on the physical characteristics of human gray matter. It differs from conventional chips in profound ways. For example, Loihi 2 stores data in tiny amounts spread across its mesh of neurons, not in a big bank of traditional computer memory, and it doesn't have a central clock ticking to synchronize computing steps on the chip. You won't see Loihi 2 in your phone or laptop. Instead, it's geared for researchers at automakers, national labs and universities. Germany's Deutsche Bahn railway network is testing how well it can optimize train schedules. The processor is geared for tasks such as processing sound or detecting hand gestures, but with vastly lower power consumption, Davies said.