2022 BRN Discussion, page-5933

Hi Yak,

I'm prepared to cut the doctor a bit of slack on the analog issue. I didn't understand him to say that the neuromorphic chip now in production (Akida) uses analog circuits. I thought he was trying to convey the concept of spikes as the "analog" way the brain works, and that Akida utilizes the spike concept.

I also understand that this distinction may be a little to subtle for those not familiar with Akida to fully grasp.

As you infer, the genius of Akida is that it is the first digital spiking neural network processor, where the "spike" was initially a single binary bit. We can optionally do 4-bit "spikes" now, ie, we can convey spike "amplitude" information now. So, instead of needing to receive single bit spikes from several different synapses, a single synapse in a single "spike" period can transmit the same signal strength (4 bits) to the neuron.

4 binary bits is 16 levels of information, so accuracy is substantially increased, although not to the level of mathematical precision used in accounting software and other mathematical applications.