Computational neurobiology meets semiconductor engineering

Many believe that the most important result to come out of the last ten years of neural network research is the significant change in perspective in the neuroscience community towards a theory of computational neurobiology and functional neuromodels. Arriving on a fast moving train from the other direction is semiconductor technology, one of the greatest technology success stories of all time – transistors are now approaching deep submicron (less than 100 nanometers) in size, and we will soon be building silicon chips with over 1 billion transistors. The marriage of these two technologies is creating what Andy Grove (ex-CEO of Intel) refers to as a strategic inflection point. Although previous attempts at merging these technologies were premature, silicon and computational neurobiology are now merging to create an extremely powerful, and radically new form of computation. 1