Nanochip emulates human brain

September 9, 2005 | Source: KurzweilAI

Mobile phones could one day have the memory capacity of a desktop computer thanks to a microchip that mimics the functioning of the brain.

Researchers are developing a new 3-D chip design using spintronics and a complex interconnected network of nanowires, with computing functions and decisions performed at the nodes where they meet — an approach similar to neurons and axons in the brain.

It combines the storage capability of a hard drive with the low cost of memory cards, potentially increasing memory capacity by 200 times from an average of 500MB to around 100GB.