* IBM’s ‘Blue Brain Project’
IBM is applying its technology to create a model of a working human brain. Using the Blue Gene supercomputer, the company is working in a two-year effort with the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne to map the neocortex of the brain to find out how to combat disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and depression.
The neocortex – also called cortex – of the brain accounts for as much as 85% of the brain’s function. It is believed to control learning, language and memory, as well as movement and sensory information. The neocortex differentiates mammals from other vertebrates and consists of four lobes – the frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal.
Once IBM and university researchers have modeled the neocortex, they will map other parts of the brain.
The computer-based simulations of the brain will run at the molecular level and hopefully shed light on how thought, perception and memory work. Dubbed the Blue Brain Project, the organizations will use the Blue Gene supercomputer to simulate the brain’s molecules.
The Blue Gene supercomputer being used to model the brain consists of four racks of computers with a processing power of 22.8 trillion floating-point operations per second, or 22.8 teraflops.
Using the Blue Gene supercomputer will allow the acceleration of brain research, researchers say. What would previously take days of lab research can now be done in seconds.
IBM’s eServer Blue Gene is available in one to 64 racks, with a total of 1,024 dual-processor nodes per rack.
