If you’re going to craft brain-like computers, it stands to reason that you’d want to replicate brain-like behavior right down to the smallest elements, doesn’t it? Sure enough, researchers have managed just that. They’ve developed an artificial synapse that imitates the real thing by both learning and remembering whenever electrical signals cross — most previous attempts at this can only manage one action at a time. You only have to discharge and recharge the synapse at specific voltages to program it, and it promises to be far more power-efficient than conventional approaches to brain-like operation.
via Engadget
Image: L.A. Cicero/Stanford University