A VLSI Implementation of the Adaptive Exponential Integrate-and-Fire Neuron Model

Part of Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 23 (NIPS 2010)

Authors

Sebastian Millner, Andreas Grübl, Karlheinz Meier, Johannes Schemmel, Marc-olivier Schwartz

Abstract

We describe an accelerated hardware neuron being capable of emulating the adap-tive exponential integrate-and-fire neuron model. Firing patterns of the membrane stimulated by a step current are analyzed in transistor level simulation and in silicon on a prototype chip. The neuron is destined to be the hardware neuron of a highly integrated wafer-scale system reaching out for new computational paradigms and opening new experimentation possibilities. As the neuron is dedicated as a universal device for neuroscientific experiments, the focus lays on parameterizability and reproduction of the analytical model.