LONDON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Researchers have made the pioneering breakthrough in developing photonic computer chips that imitate the way the brain's synapses operate, which could pave the way for a new age of computing, according to a study released on Thursday by the University of Oxford.
The team led by researchers from Oxford combined phase-change materials with specially designed integrated photonic circuits to deliver a biological-like synaptic response. Phase-change materials are commonly found in household items such re-writable optical discs.
The newly developed photonic synapses can operate at speeds a thousand times faster than those of the human brain, according to the study which has been published in the journal Science Advances.
Based on this research work, future machines may be able to work and think in a similar way to the human brain, while at the same time exploiting the speed and power efficiency of photonic systems, the team believes.
"The development of computers that work more like the human brain has been a holy grail of scientists for decades," said Prof. Harish Bhaskaran from Oxford, who led the team.
Via a network of neurons and synapses the brain can process and store vast amounts of information simultaneously, using only a few tens of watts of power, and conventional computers "cannot come close to this sort of performance," said Bhaskaran.
