9. Communication and hybrid circuit design

Chapter 9

Although some of the greatest successes in neuromorphic designs are based on analog circuitry, they are mostly limited in scalability and programmability. Hybrid analog/digital architectures aim at solving the scalability bottleneck by handling spike communication digitally. Pure digital systems aim for high-level programmability and on-chip learning. In this chapter, we move forward from refined analog designs to hybrid and digital neuromorphic circuits. In the first part of this chapter, we will cover the essentials of Address Event Representation (AER). In the second part, we will shift gears toward digital neuromorphic designs, focusing on IBM’s TrueNorth architecture as a case study.