Revision as of 22:54, 18 May 2018

Project SpiNNaker (an abbreviation for "spiking neural network (SNN) architecture") is a research project by the APT - Advanced Processor Technologies Research Group of the University of Manchester. In its full configuration, the system consists of 1,036,800 ARM9 cores that are capable of simulating up to one billion neurons in real time.

Overview

The SpiNNaker engine is using the SpiNNaker multicore System-On-Chip (SoC) as single nodes. Each chip contains two dies: The first die holds 18 ARM968 cores, 32kB SRAM, 64kB data tightly coupled memory (DTCM) per core, 32kB instruction tightly coupled memory (ITCM) per core, an Ethernet interface and a custom interconnect fabric. The second die within the SoC holds 128MB of shared SDRAM.

System Components

ARM968

Vectored Interrupt Controller (VIC)

Counter/Timer units

Ethernet

DMA

Memory

Routing fabric

References

• Furber et al. "Overview of the SpiNNaker System Architecture" IEEE Transactions On Computers, Vol. 62, No. 12, December 2013