抄録
Neuromorphic systems are designed by mimicking or being inspired by the nervous system, which realizes robust, autonomous, and power-efficient information processing by highly parallel architecture. It is a candidate of the next-generation computing system that is expected to have advanced information processing ability by power-efficient and parallel architecture. A silicon neuronal network is a neuromorphic system with a most detailed level of analogy to the nervous system. It is a network of silicon neurons connected via silicon synapses;they are electronic circuits to reproduce the electrophysiological activity of neuronal cells and synapses, respectively. There is a trade-off between the proximity to the neuronal and synaptic activities and simplicity and power-consumption of the circuit. Power-efficient and simple silicon neurons assume uniform spikes, but biophysical experimental data suggest the possibility that variety of spikes given to a synapse is playing a certain role in the information processing in the brain. In this article, we review our design approach of silicon neuronal networks where uniform spikes are not assumed. Simplicity of the circuits is brought by mathematical techniques of qualitative neuronal modeling. Though it is neither simpler nor low-power consuming than above silicon neurons, it is expected to be more appropriate for silicon neuronal networks applied to brain-morphic computing.
