Supercomputer with 228 trillion synaptic operations per second

A team of scientists at the University of Western Sydney (Australia) introduced DeepSouth, the first supercomputer with the ability to simulate the human brain at full scale,IFL ScienceDecember 19 news.

When operational, DeepSouth will be capable of 228 trillion synaptic operations per second, a number comparable to the activity of all the interconnected neurons in the human brain.

The brain is an extremely energy-efficient system, and scientists are still working to recreate that efficiency in computers.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Frontier supercomputer, one of the fastest computers in the world today, requires 22.7 megawatts to run, according to Domenico Vicinanza, associate professor of intelligent systems and data science at Anglia Ruskin University. But the human brain can operate at a similar speed—a trillion calculations per second—with just 20 watts.

DeepSouth is intended to help researchers explore computing in a less power-hungry way. The supercomputer is designed to mimic the human brain, unlike traditional electronic computer designs that have not changed significantly in decades. DeepSouth is expected to begin operations in April 2024.

DeepSouth’s brain-simulating circuitry is based on a network of simple processors that can operate in parallel. It mimics the way different neurons in the brain, connected by synapses, can work simultaneously. The system will be scalable and easily reprogrammable from a user interface in the popular Python programming language, meaning researchers can use the technology without needing to understand the hardware.

"This platform will advance our understanding of the brain and develop brain-scale computing applications in a wide range of areas such as sensing, biomedicine, robotics, aerospace and large-scale AI applications," said Professor André van Schaik, director of the International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems (ICNS) at Western Sydney University.