Today, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) and IBM announce the development of a new Scale-up Synaptic Supercomputer (NS16e) that highly integrates 16 TrueNorth Chips in a 4×4 array to deliver 16 million neurons and 256 million synapses. LLNL will also receive an end-to-end software ecosystem that consists of a simulator; a programming language; an integrated programming environment; a library of algorithms as well as applications; firmware; tools for composing neural networks for deep learning; a teaching curriculum; and cloud enablement. Also, don't miss the story in The Wall Street Journal (sign-in required) and the perspective and a video by LLNL's Brian Van Essen.
To provide insights into what it took to achieve this significant milestone in the history of our project, following are four intertwined perspectives from my colleagues:
- Filipp Akopyan -- First Steps to an Efficient Scalable NeuroSynaptic Supercomputer.
- Bill Risk and Ben Shaw -- Creating an Iconic Enclosure for the NS16e.
- Jun Sawada -- NS16e System as a Neural Network Development Workstation.
- Brian Taba -- How to Program a Synaptic Supercomputer.
The following timeline provides context for today's milestone in terms of the continued evolution of our project.
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| Illustration Credit: William Risk |
