Building brain-inspired computing systems: Examining the role of nanoscale devices

Brain-inspired computing is attracting considerable attention because of its potential to solve a wide variety of data-intensive problems that are difficult for even state-of-the-art supercomputers to tackle. The ability of the human brain to process visual and audio inputs in real time and make complex logical decisions by consuming a mere 20 W makes it the most power-efficient computational engine known to man. While state-of-the-art digital complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology permits the realization of individual devices and circuits that mimic the dynamics of neurons and synapses in the brain, emulating the immense parallelism and event-driven computational architecture in systems with comparable complexity and power budget as the brain, and in real time, remains a formidable challenge.