Lecturer in the METU Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, Prof. Dr. Barış Bayram and Berre Vize, a research fellow in the same department, informed about their project called “MEMS Neurostor” that they developed in the University's ULTRAMEMS Research Laboratory, which is also supported by the Ministry of Industry and Technology, the Council of Higher Education and TÜBİTAK.
Bayram stated that the patent application process for the “neuromorphic processor component device MEMS Neuristor,” which they developed in four years and which allows electronic devices to process information similar to the human brain, is being carried out by the METU Technology Transfer Office.
Bayram explained that they started the project after noting in their literature review that there were similarities between brain cells and systems that offer high energy efficiency, saying that the device is fully compatible with established production processes, allowing it to be quickly could be converted into a product by global companies.
Prof. Dr. Bayram said: “The human brain consumes about 25 watts of energy, and if we were to perform the operations of the human brain with the most modern processor, that would be 25 megawatts, which means it consumes more energy,” he said.
Bayram explained that the most important point that ensures energy efficiency in the brain is the integration of the memory and processing unit, noting that computers have memory modules that store information and processor structures that process information. Prof. Dr. Bayram continued as follows:
“In computers, information constantly flows from the memory module to the processor, is processed here and returns to the module. Since there is a constant transfer of information, this increases both energy consumption and delay. In the neuromorphic processor we have developed here, the memory module and the processor have the same structure.
Therefore, it can perform current operations with less energy. For example, we currently have to charge our cell phones every day, but if the transistors (the system that controls the flow of electricity) in them are replaced with MEMS neuristors, we will not have to charge our cell phones at all for 1 year.”
This would be a significant gain for the protection of personal data
Prof. Dr. Bayram explained that people use their mobile phones very actively, their transactions are shared with servers in other countries due to insufficient processors in the phones, thereby creating risks in the protection of personal data.
Bayram explained that if MEMS neuristors are integrated into mobile phones in the future, and phone operations can be carried out locally using its own capacity without sharing it with servers in other countries, energy consumption will be reduced to a minimum, explaining that this is also the case will be a very important win in terms of personal data protection.
Bayram stated that energy consumption is high due to the use of transistor-based hardware in current artificial intelligence systems, saying:
“Cooling, for example, in the server centers set up by Google is a huge problem because energy consumption is high. That's why they usually install them in the sea, they say, let's cool them with sea water. However, if we build these servers with neuromorphic processors, that is, with our system that uses MEMS neuristors, we will not do it in the sea, but we can even set it up in the desert.
Because there will be no such thing as a heating problem. “We can say that it is a more environmentally friendly technology that reduces energy consumption and increases performance, so the warming of the world decreases and there is no need to cut down trees.”
Meetings take place with the world's leading companies
Bayram said that they expect that with the local and national invention of MEMS neurosensor there will be a revolution not only in Turkey but all over the world and that they will contact companies in the field on this issue in the field of global neuromorphic processors.
Prof. Dr. Barış Bayram said: “We will conduct these negotiations with Analog Devices, HP, IBM, NVIDIA, Amazon and Google. But this is a starting point, so we can say the first seed. Because this is the world's first MEMS neuristor.” Neuristors exist, but they use complex materials and take a lot of time.” “They cannot have industrially useful features in long-term use,” he said.
“We will work harder to make our country a leader in this area.”
Berre Vize, a research fellow at METU's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, also said that existing devices have not yet reached the required level in areas such as “reliability, industrial use and compatibility with existing integrated semiconductor microfabrication processes” and that they meet the requirements in These areas could meet areas with the MEMS neuristor device that they first introduced.
Berre Vize said: “MEMS neurosensors have the potential to revolutionize various industries, including healthcare, finance and transportation, by providing faster and more efficient artificial intelligence computing systems. Although we are just at the beginning of the global neuromorphic processor revolution, our country has done this.” “We will become a pioneer and leader in this field with our local and national invention.” “We will work harder towards this realization to contribute,” he said.
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