SpiNNaker Home Page

SpiNNaker is a novel computer architecture inspired by the working of the human brain.

A SpiNNaker machine is a massively parallel computing platform, targeted towards three main areas of research:

Robotics: SpiNNaker is a good target for researchers in robotics, who need mobile, low power computation. A small SpiNNaker board makes it possible to simulate a network of tens of thousands of spiking neurons, process sensory input and generate motor output, all in real time and in a low power system.



Computer Science: SpiNNaker breaks the rules followed by traditional supercomputers that rely on deterministic, repeatable communications and reliable computation. SpiNNaker nodes communicate using simple messages (spikes) that are inherently unreliable. This break with determinism offers new challenges, but also the potential to discover powerful new principles of massively parallel computation.



Where to go to find out more:

Learn more about the SpiNNaker Project

For more detail on the philosophy of the SpiNNaker Architecture

The heart of the machine is the SpiNNaker chip

Information on development boards and our plans to build SpiNNaker Machines

The System Software running on the machine. For developers:

To access tools and software to run on SpiNNaker systems, see our Downloads page

Our Support page provides white papers, documents and FAQs.

The Publications page gives details of papers describing SpiNNaker in detail Contact Us:



For further information on Spinnaker development boards or the Spinnaker project contact us at:



simon.davidson@manchester.ac.uk



Our mail address is:



APT Group,

School of Computer Science,

University of Manchester

Oxford Road,

Manchester

M13 9PL























Understanding how the brain works is a Grand Challenge of 21st century science. We will provide the platform to help neuroscientists to unravel the mystery that is the mind. The largest SpiNNaker machine will be capable of simulating a billion simple neurons, or millions of neurons with complex structure and internal dynamics.