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Applied physics

A new spin on nanoscale computing

Nature volume 547, pages 407–408 (2017)Cite this article

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A nanoscale magnetic device that mimics the behaviour of neurons has been used to recognize audio signals. Such a device could be adapted to tackle tasks with greater efficiency than conventional computers. See Letter p.428

Neuromorphic (brain-like) computers offer many advantages over conventional systems, including energy efficiency, a high data-transfer speed and the ability to be trained. On page 428, Torrejon et al.1 report one of the first nanoscale neuromorphic computers to perform a classification task — in this case, speech recognition. The core of the computer is a magnetic device called a spintronic oscillator that operates at gigahertz frequencies. Torrejon and colleagues' work is interesting not so much because of the application for speech recognition, the results of which are similar to those of other state-of-the-art technologies2, but because of how the recognition is achieved.

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Figure 1: Spoken-digit recognition using a spintronic oscillator.

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References

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  1. the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, 10012–1185, USA

    Frank Hoppensteadt

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  1. Frank Hoppensteadt
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Correspondence to Frank Hoppensteadt.

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Hoppensteadt, F. A new spin on nanoscale computing. Nature 547, 407–408 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/547407a

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