Intel and Sandia National Labs partner on Neuromorphic Computing, a Next AI Generation

Intel and Sandia have announced their collaboration for Neuromorphic Computing. The partnership aims to explore the value of neuromorphic computing for scaled-up computational problems. 

Neuromorphic Computing is the next generation of AI. It builds AI into areas similar to human cognition like interpretation and autonomous adaptation. Intel Labs is focusing on Neuromorphic Computing with key focus areas emulating the neural structure and operation of the human brain.

Director of Intel’s Neuromorphic Computing Lab, Mike Davies, said, "By applying the high-speed, high-efficiency and adaptive capabilities of neuromorphic computing architecture, Sandia National Labs will explore the acceleration of high-demand and frequently evolving workloads that are increasingly important for our national security. We look forward to a productive collaboration leading to the next generation of neuromorphic tools, algorithms, and systems that can scale to the billion neuron level and beyond."

Principal Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia, Craig Vineyard, said, "Sandia National Labs has long been at the leading edge of large-scale computing, using some of the country’s most advanced high-performance computers to further national security. As the need for real-time, dynamic data processing becomes more pressing for this mission, we are exploring entirely new computing paradigms, such as neuromorphic architectures. Our work has helped keep Sandia National Labs on the forefront of computing, and this new endeavor with Intel’s Neuromorphic Research Group will continue this legacy into the future."

As a part of the collaboration, Intel will deliver multiple large-scale neuromorphic research systems to Sandia as part of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program, notes the announcement.

Sandia will start their research using a 50-million neuron Loihi-based system. These systems are delivered to Sandia at their Albuquerque, New Mexico, facility. The next stage of collaboration includes continued large-scale neuromorphic research on Intel’s upcoming next-generation neuromorphic architecture and the delivery of Intel’s largest neuromorphic research system which has more than 1 billion neurons in computational capacity, notes the announcement.