In order to create their two protypes, IBM began by discarding the standard model for computer architecture, which separates memory and processing into separate components, tying all the memory to a single processor or group of processors using a shared data pathway called a bus.
By contrast, their "neurosynaptic cores," spread both processing and memory throughout the processor similar to the way neurons and synapses are arranged in the brain.
“This is a major initiative to move beyond the von Neumann paradigm that has been ruling computer architecture for more than half a century,” said Dharmendra Modha, project leader for IBM Research.
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