Trying to improve our memories.... The new technologies that we have invested in (spin-torque MRAM, CNT, nano-wire) are non-volatile rad-hard memories that should be faster, smaller, cooler, cheaper and more reliable than the current SRAM and DRAM derp. But stepping back to see the big picture, we have entered the era of computing where almost all of the transistors manufactured are memory, not logic. Even for Intel, which thought it had exited the memory business. The focus of Moores Law will bifurcate, and memory architectures will become the main vector of progress. As a former chip designer, I am struck by the evolution of these different “memories” – those in our head and those in our computers. It seems that the developmental trajectory of electronics is recapitulating the evolutionary history of the brain. Specifically, both are saturating with a memory-centric architecture. Is this a fundamental attractor in computation and cognition? The cortex is relatively new development by evolutionary time scales. After a long period of simple reflexes and reptilian instincts, only mammals evolved a neocortex, and in humans it usurped some functionality, such as motor control, from older regions of the brain. Thinking of the reptilian brain as a “logic”-centric era in our development that then migrated to a memory-centric model serves as a good mental model for the future of AI. Jeff Hawkins: “The brain does not ‘compute’ the answers to problems; it retrieves the answers from memory… The entire cortex is a memory system. It isn’t a computer at all.” More detail: https://flickr/photos/jurvetson/8185844122/
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 04:56:38 +0000
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