Communications of the ACM
Neuroscience to Benefit From Hybrid Supercomputer Memory
The Blue Brain Project is developing detailed models of the rodent brain based on vast amounts of information to describe each neuron and how they connect to each other.
Credit: The Blue Brain Project EPFL
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), ETH Zurich, and IBM are collaborating on a hybrid memory strategy for supercomputers designed to help the Blue Brain Project and the Human Brain Project achieve their goals. The researchers are studying how to combine different types of memory for less expensive and optimal supercomputing performance.
For example, the Blue Brain Project is developing detailed models of the rodent brain based on vast amounts of information to describe each neuron and how they connect to each other. "Data-intensive research has supercomputer requirements that go well beyond high computational power," says EPFL professor Felix Schurmann. "Here, we investigate different types of memory and how it is used, which is crucial to build detailed models of the brain."
Although the Blue Brain Project recently acquired an IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputer, which has four times the memory of the supercomputer it currently uses, this still may be insufficient for modeling the mouse brain at the desired level of detail.
The researchers say their memory technology could help meet some of neuroscience's extraordinary computational requirements. "These technological advancements will not only help scientists model the brain, but they will also contribute to future evidence-based systems," says IBM's Alessandro Curioni.
From Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
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