The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Overview of the SpiNNaker system architecture

Overview of the SpiNNaker system architecture
Overview of the SpiNNaker system architecture
SpiNNaker (a contraction of Spiking Neural Network Architecture) is a million-core computing engine whose flagship goal is to be able to simulate the behaviour of aggregates of up to a billion neurons in real time. It consists of an array of ARM9 cores, communicating via packets carried by a custom interconnect fabric. The packets are small (40 or 72 bits), and their transmission is brokered entirely by hardware, giving the overall engine an extremely high bisection bandwidth of over 5 billion packets/s. Three of the principle axioms of parallel machine design - memory coherence, synchronicity and determinism - have been discarded in the design without, surprisingly, compromising the ability to perform meaningful computations. A further attribute of the system is the acknowledgement, from the initial design stages, that the sheer size of the implementation will make component failures an inevitable aspect of day-to-day operation, and fault detection and recovery mechanisms have been built into the system at many levels of abstraction. This paper describes the architecture of the machine and outlines the underlying design philosophy; software and applications are to be described in detail elsewhere, and only introduced in passing here as necessary to illuminate the description.
interconnection architectures, parallel processors, neurocomputers, real-time distributed
1-14
Furber, Steve
5060db9f-746b-4af3-b8e0-53c8b5c9f4a0
Lester, David
be34b678-d6ce-4342-a494-1dad2aaafd75
Plana, Luis
4953a2dd-d707-4a85-a8c4-7194572163f4
Garside, Jim
49f534c3-affe-4929-921a-b518a08d2469
Painkras, Eustace
d8c4c49e-2d13-4590-98ff-cca1d9ada86b
Temple, Steve
eb5e9f04-5529-483e-8e4a-c2a02fca7f2c
Brown, A.D.
5c19e523-65ec-499b-9e7c-91522017d7e0
Furber, Steve
5060db9f-746b-4af3-b8e0-53c8b5c9f4a0
Lester, David
be34b678-d6ce-4342-a494-1dad2aaafd75
Plana, Luis
4953a2dd-d707-4a85-a8c4-7194572163f4
Garside, Jim
49f534c3-affe-4929-921a-b518a08d2469
Painkras, Eustace
d8c4c49e-2d13-4590-98ff-cca1d9ada86b
Temple, Steve
eb5e9f04-5529-483e-8e4a-c2a02fca7f2c
Brown, A.D.
5c19e523-65ec-499b-9e7c-91522017d7e0

Furber, Steve, Lester, David, Plana, Luis, Garside, Jim, Painkras, Eustace, Temple, Steve and Brown, A.D. (2012) Overview of the SpiNNaker system architecture. IEEE Transactions on Computers, 99, 1-14. (doi:10.1109/TC.2012.142).

Record type: Article

Abstract

SpiNNaker (a contraction of Spiking Neural Network Architecture) is a million-core computing engine whose flagship goal is to be able to simulate the behaviour of aggregates of up to a billion neurons in real time. It consists of an array of ARM9 cores, communicating via packets carried by a custom interconnect fabric. The packets are small (40 or 72 bits), and their transmission is brokered entirely by hardware, giving the overall engine an extremely high bisection bandwidth of over 5 billion packets/s. Three of the principle axioms of parallel machine design - memory coherence, synchronicity and determinism - have been discarded in the design without, surprisingly, compromising the ability to perform meaningful computations. A further attribute of the system is the acknowledgement, from the initial design stages, that the sheer size of the implementation will make component failures an inevitable aspect of day-to-day operation, and fault detection and recovery mechanisms have been built into the system at many levels of abstraction. This paper describes the architecture of the machine and outlines the underlying design philosophy; software and applications are to be described in detail elsewhere, and only introduced in passing here as necessary to illuminate the description.

Text
TCv2.pdf - Accepted Manuscript
Download (9MB)

More information

Published date: 12 June 2012
Keywords: interconnection architectures, parallel processors, neurocomputers, real-time distributed
Organisations: EEE

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 350495
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/350495
PURE UUID: 1b13ca62-1ff8-4b14-91ee-485995883e0d

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 04 Apr 2013 13:05
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 13:26

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Steve Furber
Author: David Lester
Author: Luis Plana
Author: Jim Garside
Author: Eustace Painkras
Author: Steve Temple
Author: A.D. Brown

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×