International Business Machines Corporation
Virtualization in hierarchical cortical emulation frameworks

Abstract:

Embodiments of the present invention describe a hierarchical cortical emulation using a scratchpad memory device and a storage class memory device. The scratchpad memory device is partitioned into a first subset of memory locations and a second subset of memory locations. A processor from a neural network device is assigned a first memory portion from the first subset, a second memory portion from the second subset, and a third memory portion from the storage class memory device. Further the neural network device and a memory controller perform a compute cycle for a hierarchical level k, 1.ltoreq.k.ltoreq.n, n being total number of levels. A compute cycle includes performing, by the processor, computations from the level k using neuron data stored in the first memory portion, and in parallel, copying by the memory controller, the neuron data for a hierarchical level k+1 from the third memory portion to the second memory portion.