Neuromorphic computing shows promise for advancing computing efficiency and capabilities of AI applications using brain-inspired principles. However, the neuromorphic research field currently lacks standardized benchmarks, making it difficult to accurately measure technological advancements, compare performance with conventional methods, and identify promising future research directions. This article presents NeuroBench, a benchmark framework for neuromorphic algorithms and systems, which is collaboratively designed from an open community of researchers across industry and academia. NeuroBench introduces a common set of tools and systematic methodology for inclusive benchmark measurement, delivering an objective reference framework for quantifying neuromorphic approaches in both hardware-independent and hardware-dependent settings. For latest project updates, visit the project website (neurobench.ai).
CMOS-RRAM integration holds great promise for low energy and high throughput neuromorphic computing. However, most RRAM technologies relying on filamentary switching suffer from variations and noise, leading to computational accuracy loss, increased energy consumption, and overhead by expensive program and verify schemes. We developed a filament-free, bulk switching RRAM technology to address these challenges. We systematically engineered a trilayer metal-oxide stack and investigated the switching characteristics of RRAM with varying thicknesses and oxygen vacancy distributions to achieve reliable bulk switching without any filament formation. We demonstrated bulk switching at megaohm regime with high current nonlinearity, up to 100 levels without compliance current. We developed a neuromorphic compute-in-memory platform and showcased edge computing by implementing a spiking neural network for an autonomous navigation/racing task. Our work addresses challenges posed by existing RRAM technologies and paves the way for neuromorphic computing at the edge under strict size, weight, and power constraints.
The brain has effectively proven a powerful inspiration for the development of computing architectures in which processing is tightly integrated with memory, communication is event‐driven, and analog computation can be performed at scale. These neuromorphic systems increasingly show an ability to improve the efficiency and speed of scientific computing and artificial intelligence applications. Herein, it is proposed that the brain's ubiquitous stochasticity represents an additional source of inspiration for expanding the reach of neuromorphic computing to probabilistic applications. To date, many efforts exploring probabilistic computing have focused primarily on one scale of the microelectronics stack, such as implementing probabilistic algorithms on deterministic hardware or developing probabilistic devices and circuits with the expectation that they will be leveraged by eventual probabilistic architectures. A co‐design vision is described by which large numbers of devices, such as magnetic tunnel junctions and tunnel diodes, can be operated in a stochastic regime and incorporated into a scalable neuromorphic architecture that can impact a number of probabilistic computing applications, such as Monte Carlo simulations and Bayesian neural networks. Finally, a framework is presented to categorize increasingly advanced hardware‐based probabilistic computing technologies.
11 December 2018 in IEEE Letters of the Computer Society