Orientation-Selective aVLSI Spiking Neurons

We describe a programmable multi-chip VLSI neuronal system that can be used for exploring spike-based information processing models. The system consists of a silicon retina, a PIC microcontroller, and a transceiver chip whose integrate-and-fire neurons are connected in a soft winner-take-all architecture. The circuit on this multi-neuron chip approximates a cortical microcircuit. The neurons can be configured for different computational properties by the virtual connections of a selected set of pixels on the silicon retina. The virtual wiring between the different chips is effected by an event-driven communication protocol that uses asynchronous digital pulses, similar to spikes in a neuronal system. We used the multi-chip spike-based system to synthesize orientation-tuned neurons using both a feedforward model and a feedback model. The performance of our analog hardware spiking model matched the experimental observations and digital simulations of continuous-valued neurons. The multi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2001
• Where: NIPS
• Authors: Shih-Chii Liu, Jörg Kramer, Giacomo Indiveri, Tobi Delbrück, Rodney J. Douglas
• Keywords: Multi-chip Vlsi, Neuronal, Neurons, NIPS 2001, NIPS 2007