Hierarchical temporal memory (HTM) is a biomimetic machine learning algorithm focused upon modeling the structural and algorithmic properties of the neocortex. It is comprised of two components, realizing pattern recognition of spatial and temporal data, respectively. HTM research has gained momentum in recent years, leading to both hardware and software exploration of its algorithmic formulation. Previous work on HTM has centered on addressing performance concerns; however, the memory-bound operation of HTM presents significant challenges to scalability.
In this work, a scalable flash-based storage processor unit, Flash-HTM (FHTM), is presented along with a detailed analysis of its potential scalability. FHTM leverages SSD flash technology to implement the HTM cortical learning algorithm spatial pooler. The ability for FHTM to scale with increasing model complexity is addressed with respect to design footprint, memory organization, and power efficiency. Additionally, a mathematical model of the hardware is evaluated against the MNIST dataset, yielding 91.98% classification accuracy. A fully custom layout is developed to validate the design in a TSMC 180nm process. The area and power footprints of the spatial pooler are 30.538mm2 and 5.171mW, respectively. Storage processor units have the potential to be viable platforms to support implementations of HTM at scale
