May 31, 2024 12:00:00

A CPU is made from a lab-grown 'human brain'

A system called 'Neuro Platform' that uses brain tissue (

human brain organoids ) created by culturing stem cells as a CPU has been built by Swiss biocomputing company FinalSpark. The Neuro Platform can be accessed remotely by researchers in various locations and can perform 'learning' and 'information processing.'

Neuroplatform - FinalSpark
https://finalspark.com/neuroplatform/

Frontiers | Open and remotely accessible Neuroplatform for research in wetware computing

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frai.2024.1376042/full

World's first bioprocessor uses 16 human brain organoids for a million times less power consumption than a digital chip | Tom's Hardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/world's-first-bioprocessor-uses-16-human-brain-organoids-for-a-million-times-less-power-consumption-than-a-digital-chip

FinalSpark's Neuroplatform is a system of 16 human brain organoids grown in the lab. Human brain organoids are tissues induced to differentiate from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) or embryonic stem cells (ES cells), and the Neuroplatform uses neural stem cells derived from iPS cells. Connected to electrodes, the human brain organoids act as processors, allowing researchers to use these 'mini-brains' to perform calculations.


A differentiated human brain organoid looks like this.

Neuroplatform's human brain organoids are housed in four multi-electrode arrays (MEAs), each with eight electrodes that can be used for both stimulation and recording. Data is passed through digital-to-analog converters with a sampling frequency of 30 kHz and a resolution of 16 bits, and these are supported by a microfluidic life support system for the MEAs and a surveillance camera.

The Neuro Platform has been running 24/7 for the past four years, and now nine new institutions have been given access to it. The Neuro Platform costs $500 per month.

Human brain organoids have a short lifespan and initially only functioned for a few hours, but with improvements, it is expected that each unit will last for about 100 days.

FinalSpark said, 'Training a large-scale language model like GPT-3 requires approximately 10 GWh, which is about 6,000 times the energy used by European citizens in a year, but the Neuro Platform consumes one millionth of the power of conventional digital processors,' highlighting the low power consumption of human brain organoids, but did not disclose their specific performance.

Around 30 universities have already expressed interest in using the NeuroPlatform.

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