Mimicking the Brain with Superconductors and LEDs

The human brain is a highly efficient processor, using less energy than a light bulb to perform quadrillions of operations. The world’s fastest supercomputer, Sunway TaihuLight in China, performs a few times more calculations every second than a brain but consumes about 800,000 times more energy. Scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Colorado, have proposed a new computing system—superconductor devices communicating using light—that mimics the brain’s neural architecture. The team’s calculations suggest their system could operate on less energy and perform more calculations than a human brain. The team’s artificial neuron consists of a superconducting wire connected to a LED. The two elements act as the signal detector and the signal sender, respectively. In the absence of incoming photons, the LED is off and the neuron is inactive.