Hi, This phrase in the article makes me doubt that the writer thereof did his homework: "for some unknown reason the flashes synchronize over time.”" The synchronization of weakly coupled oscillators is a well known phenomena! It should be pointed out that in the human brain, global synchronization is harmful. It is the cause of epilepsy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy#Mechanism.
On Monday, May 19, 2014 2:26:40 AM UTC-4, Bruno Marchal wrote: > > > On 18 May 2014, at 21:16, [email protected] <javascript:> wrote: > > Does this computer architecture assume not-comp? > > > No. Elementary arithmetic emulates n-synchronized oscillators for all n, > even infinite enumerable set of oscillators. You would need a continuum of > oscillators, with an explicit special non computable hamiltonian. Today, > there is nothing in nature which would threat comp, except the collapse of > the wave packet in theories where this is a physical phenomenon. Even in > that case, it would be a computation with oracle, and not change much of > the consequences. Anyway, I am not sure I can make sense of the wave > collapse being a physical phenomenon, and even less that this play a role > in the brain computation. > > Bruno > > > > 15046Synchronized oscillators may allow for computing that works like the > brain > *Expand Messages* > > - richard ruquist > May 15 2:09 PM > View Source > - 0 Attachment > - > Synchronized oscillators may allow for computing that works like the > brainMay 15, 2014 > [image: oscillating_switch] > This is a cartoon of an oscillating switch, the basis of a new type of > low-power analog computing (credit: Credit: Nikhil Shukla, Penn State) > Computing is currently based on binary (Boolean) logic, but a new type > of computing architecture created by electrical engineers at Penn > State<http://www.psu.edu/> stores > information in the frequencies and phases of periodic signals and could > work more like the human brain. > It would use a fraction of the energy necessary for today’s computers, > according to the engineers. > To achieve the new architecture, they used a thin film of vanadium > oxide on a titanium dioxide substrate to create an oscillating switch. > Vanadium dioxide is called a “wacky oxide” because it transitions from a > conducting metal to an insulating semiconductor and vice versa with the > addition of a small amount of heat or electrical current. > *Biological synchronization for associative processing* > Using a standard electrical engineering trick, Nikhil Shukla, graduate > student in electrical engineering, added a series resistor to the oxide > device to stabilize oscillations. When he added a second similar > oscillating system, he discovered that, over time, the two devices began > to > oscillate in unison, or synchronize. > This coupled system could provide the basis for non-Boolean computing. > Shukla worked with Suman Datta, professor of electrical engineering, and > co-advisor Roman Engel-Herbert, assistant professor of materials science > and engineering, Penn State. They reported their results May 14 in > *Scientific > Reports* (open access). > “It’s called a small-world network,” explained Shukla. “You see it in > lots of biological systems, such as certain species of fireflies. The > males > will flash randomly, but then for some unknown reason the flashes > synchronize over time.” The brain is also a small-world network of closely > clustered nodes that evolved for more efficient information processing. > “Biological synchronization is everywhere,” added Datta. “We wanted to > use it for a different kind of computing called associative processing, > which is an analog rather than digital way to compute.” > An array of oscillators can store patterns — for instance, the color > of someone’s hair, their height and skin texture. If a second area of > oscillators has the same pattern, they will begin to synchronize, and the > degree of match can be read out, without consuming a lot of energy and > requiring a lot of transistors, as in Boolean computing. > *A neuromorphic computer chip* > Datta is collaborating with Vijay Narayanan, professor of computer > science and engineering, Penn State, in exploring the use of these coupled > oscillations to solve visual recognition problems more efficiently than > existing embedded vision processors. > Shukla and Datta called on the expertise of Cornell University > materials scientist Darrell Schlom to make the vanadium dioxide thin film, > which has extremely high quality similar to single crystal silicon. Arijit > Raychowdhury, computer engineer, and Abhinav Parihar graduate student, > both > of Georgia Tech, mathematically simulated the nonlinear dynamics of > coupled > phase transitions in the vanadium dioxide devices. > Parihar created a short video simulation of the transitions, which > occur at a rate close to a million times per second, to show the way the > oscillations synchronize. Venkatraman Gopalan, professor of materials > science and engineering, Penn State, used the Advanced Photon Source at > Argonne National Laboratory to visually characterize the structural > changes > occurring in the oxide thin film in the midst of the oscillations. > Datta believes it will take seven to 10 years to scale up from their > current network of two-three coupled oscillators to the 100 million or so > closely packed oscillators required to make a neuromorphic computer chip. > One of the benefits of the novel device is that it will use only about > one percent of the energy of digital computing, allowing for new ways to > design computers. Much work remains to determine if vanadium dioxide can > be > integrated into current silicon wafer technology. > The Office of Naval Research primarily supported this work. The > National Science Foundation’s Expeditions in Computing Award also > supported > this work. > ------------------------------ > *Abstract of Scientific Reports paper* > Strongly correlated phases exhibit collective carrier dynamics that if > properly harnessed can enable novel functionalities and applications. In > this article, we investigate the phenomenon of electrical oscillations in > a > prototypical MIT system, vanadium dioxide (VO2). We show that the key > to such oscillatory behaviour is the ability to induce and stabilize a > non-hysteretic and spontaneously reversible phase transition using a > negative feedback mechanism. Further, we investigate the synchronization > and coupling dynamics of such VO2 based relaxation oscillators and > show, via experiment and simulation, that this coupled oscillator system > exhibits rich non-linear dynamics including charge oscillations that are > synchronized in both frequency and phase. Our approach of harnessing a > non-hysteretic reversible phase transition region is applicable to other > correlated systems exhibiting metal-insulator transitions and can be a > potential candidate for oscillator based non-Boolean computing. > references: > - Nikhil Shukla et al., Synchronized charge oscillations in > correlated electron systems, *Scientific Reports*, 2014, DOI: > 10.1038/srep04964 (open > access)<http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140514/srep04964/full/srep04964.html> > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> > . > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/ > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. 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