Biological Data Center Using Brain Cells

Researchers at the National University of Singapore are

contributing to a data center that runs on not computer chips,

but brain cells. The founders say that the biological data center

prototype has the potential to be more energy efficient than

computers. Nicholas Ng with more.

These flashing lights aren't indicating that a computer's processors are

hard at work.

Instead, they're measuring activity in these brain

cells being

stimulated on a chip. Researchers are able to collect the

cells' responses to their prompts and use it as a form

of computing. While it might sort of be thinking,

researchers say the setup probably doesn't have a

consciousness.

What we have here is a very simple biological neural network

that has no more than 200,000 neurons, and they're mostly flat.

These CL1 units form a prototype for Singapore's first

biological data center, and it could be far more energy

efficient than usual. Each CL1 draws 30 watts

per unit, comparable to a household appliance.

Conventional data center chips can use hundreds of watts.

They also use very little amount of data, and this energy

and data efficiency point to a very interesting application in the

physical AI space as one of the use cases that we, we

have, you know, caring about a lot today, um, because if you think about

a robot or a drone, A, they have to carry their own power supply,

so there is

a very tight energy budget that they have to adhere to.

Apart from AI, the CL1 units offered new opportunities

to medical researchers at the National University of Singapore.

The CL1 keeps neurons in tightly controlled environments

and sets them up so

that they can be studied in incredible detail.

That also gives researchers the opportunity to study neurodegenerative

disorders, like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

And since the neurons they use for their studies can be grown from a specific

individual, it opens the possibility of tailoring

treatments

specifically to them.

We are hoping to use them for, to understand disease mechanisms, to,

to do

some drug screening, and to understand how, uh, particular

combinations of drugs can actually increase the function, uh, increase or

normalize the functionality of these networks.

Professor Patani's team also wants to see how other kinds of

brain cells can be used in computing.