100 billion neurons and beyond

Intelligence Realm Inc. has recently completed a simulation of 100 billion neurons, the estimated size of the human brain. The simulation used distributed computing and involved over 4,000 computers, 3,000 volunteers, 10,000 processors, 180 TB of data and lasted for a couple of months.

This was the first simulation that bypassed the 100 billion level and used database files to store the data. The simulation is one of the first steps in a long-term project that is aiming to build a large-scale artificial intelligence by reverse engineering the brain.

Ovidiu Anghelidi, the project leader said: "The simulation also proves that computing power is no longer a stumbling block in achieving artificial intelligence. The computational requirements for running large-scale biophysical neural networks at the cellular level can be found in distributed computing.

"We acknowledge the support of thousands of participants that made this possible. Our goal is to build a system that can perform automatic research in various fields, like mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. In the pursuit of truth such a system would be invaluable and will provide exceptional benefits to the society."

Volunteer computing is a form of distributed computing in which participants from around the world are donating spare computing time to scientific projects. Similar projects are SETI@HOME, BBC Climate Change and Folding@Home.

A technical paper that provides more information about the project can be downloaded from our web site at http://www.IntelligenceRealm.com/files/technical_paper.pdf. The source code and other documentation can be downloaded from http://www.SourceForge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=196242.

Intelligence Realm Inc., a Canadian company, performs research and development in the field of artificial intelligence using inter-disciplinary approaches. Additional information about Intelligence Realm is available at http://www.IntelligenceRealm.com.

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