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Article 2688 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: scot@catzen.GUN.de (Scot W. Stevenson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.science,sci.misc,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Silicon Neuron
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Date: 14 Jan 92 03:11:09 GMT
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Hello there,

In the 19/26 Dec 1991 issue of NATURE (Vol. 354), a type of silicon 
neuron is presented. If I may quote:

	"By combining neurophysiological principles with silicon 
	engineerinig, we have produced an analog intergrated circuit
	with the functional characteristics of real nerve cells. 
	Because the physics underlying the conductivity of silicon
	devices and biological membranes is similiar, the 'silicon
	neuron' is able to emulate efficiently the ion currents that
	cause nerve impulses and control the dynamics of their 
	discharge. It operates in real-time and consumes little power,
	and many 'neurons' can be fabricated on a single silicon chip.
	The silicon neuron represents a step towards constructing 
	artificial neurous systems that use more realistic principles
	of neural computation than do existing neural networks.[1]"

The authors estimate that a linear array of 100-200 such neurons could
be fabricated on a 1cm x 1cm die (the other dimension would be used for
the neuron's dendritic structure and synapses). The neuron shows adaption
and so forth.

Okay, it's not quite HAL (12th January 1992), but what do you think the 
impact of this will be?

							Y, Scot

[1] "A silicon neuron," Misha Mahowald & Rodney Douglas, Nature Vol 354
    19/26 December 1991, 515-8



	
-- 
'Religion is the opium of the masses' means that Marx never saw a TV set.
        Scot W. Stevenson scot@catzen.GUN.de Essen, Germany


