## Braindrop: A Mixed-Signal Neuromorphic Architecture With a Dynamical Systems-Based Programming Model

#### Proceedings of the IEEE, 2019

Alexander Neckar, Sam Fok, Ben V. Benjamin, Terrence C. Stewart, Nick N. Oza, Aaron R. Voelker, Chris Eliasmith, Rajit Manohar, Kwabena Boahen

### Abstract

Braindrop is the first neuromorphic system designed to be programmed at a high level of abstraction. Previous neuromorphic systems were programmed at the neurosynaptic level and required expert knowledge of the hardware to use. In stark contrast, Braindrop's computations are specified as coupled nonlinear dynamical systems and synthesized to the hardware by an automated procedure. This procedure not only leverages Braindrop's fabric of subthreshold analog circuits as dynamic computational primitives but also compensates for their mismatched and temperature-sensitive responses at the network level. Thus, a clean abstraction is presented to the user. Fabricated in a 28-nm FDSOI process, Braindrop integrates 4096 neurons in $0.65 \text mm^2$. Two innovations—sparse encoding through analog spatial convolution and weighted spike-rate summation though digital accumulative thinning—cut digital traffic drastically, reducing the energy Braindrop consumes per equivalent synaptic operation to 381 fJ for typical network configurations.

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DOI

#### Journal Article

Journal
Proceedings of the IEEE
Volume
107
Issue
1
Pages
144–164
Doi
10.1109/JPROC.2018.2881432
Publisher
IEEE