Dedicated FPGA communication architecture and design for a large-scale neuromorphic system

Abstract

The communication infrastructure is a crucial part of neuromorphic VLSI systems. A sophisticated network is required for the transmission of pulse events among the individual neuron-and-synapse circuits and the configuration data for the components of the system. We present a packet-based communication network implemented on FPGA that provides pulse stimulation, inter-node connectivity and allows the complete control and configuration of the neuromorphic system by a host unit. The design deploys a specific architecture for optimized throughput and implements a reliable and ordered data delivery. It employs also a large Playback/Trace memory that offers pulse event replay and recording of the produced neuronal activity. Altogether, our implementation is more versatile than recent FPGA-based neuromorphic infrastructures, allowing for fast system configuration, stimulation and monitoring.