IBM engineers created the "electronic blood"

It has long been known that the human brain has a perfect structure in terms of computing power, concluded at the same time in a small volume of the skull. Moreover, with a relatively small energy consumption, biological processes occur with a significantly greater supply of nutrients and heat removal, which are carried out with the help of liquids, namely, along with blood.

According to the same principle, IBM researchers, Patrick Ruch and Bruno Michel from a laboratory in Zurich (Switzerland), decided to organize the process of an experimental computer system, according to compulenta.ru.

Scientists have proven that the human brain is 10 thousand times more powerful and much more efficiently consumes (consumes) energy than any modern computer. The main reason for this is the ideally acting system of vessels and capillaries, which simultaneously provides the necessary substances for nerve cells and “cuts off” the excess heat of the body.

IBM has already found a way to create transistors that can be embedded in a virtual circuit imitating the workings of the human brain, which can lead to a sharp jump in computer performance.

IBM scientists also presented a computational architecture for “biological” chips, designed for programming processors, which in their structure and size resemble the human brain and are based on the principles of its operation, writes vesti.ru.

But IBM engineers decided to go further and compete with nature - they managed to “force” a new computer to use “electronic blood” for their needs.

The system of "redox flows" pumps the "blood" (electrolyte) through the computer and thereby removes excess heat and provides it with energy.

During the presentation, development engineers stated that by 2060 a giant computer-brain, which today occupies about half of the football field, can fit on the desktop in every home.

“The human brain surpasses any modern computer tens of thousands of times in computing power. This is because he uses for his work a network of capillaries and blood vessels to transport heat and energy at the same time. Someday we will learn to reproduce such complex natural systems, and today we have taken the first step towards this, ”the developers said.

In developing the “bionic architecture” of a computer, Michel and his colleagues recalled one of the laws of nature, which is called allometric scaling. According to this law, the metabolic power of an animal is directly proportional to the size of its body.

Based on this principle, the developers came to the solution of the task.

The disadvantages of existing systems for building computer chips abound. And one of the most important problems is the underdeveloped cooling system and, as a result, a decrease in the efficiency and efficiency of processors.

At the heart of the three-dimensional architecture of construction is the system of installation of computer chips on each other, so that the memory cells are interleaved by processors. That is, there is a "locking" of heat inside the structure. And this is not good for chips.

However, IBM developers are building chips in the form of a flat grid, where the space above it is necessary to dissipate the excessively generated heat.

Also, scientists have integrated into this design a liquid cooling system, like the one that is observed in the system of operation of internal combustion engines, for example, cars. That is, the layers of chips alternate with microscopic tubes of liquid.

Next, a system of simultaneous filling and cooling was organized.

IBM engineers began to look for a liquid that would cope with these several tasks at once.

So, for laboratory tests of the “redox stream” unit, engineers chose vanadium, which was charged on the electrodes and pumped into a computer, where it then transferred energy directly to the chip itself.

Despite the seeming simplicity in the design and execution of the new system, its operation requires more electricity than is generally produced in the whole world today. But IBM engineers are confident that "electronic blood" is the future of all computing.

By the way, IBM's fellow developers, who are not directly involved in the development of the computer brain, are also convinced that the computer brain in the future can really become much more powerful than all currently existing computers. However, he will never have to compete with the perfect human brain in his device.

And running very far into the future, it is possible for scientists to create a computer like the human brain, but from biological materials, from a scientific point of view, can once again try to explain the appearance on Earth of a “reasonable person” not by chance, but by someone’s highest technology developed long before human history.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/technology/inzhenery-ibm-sozdali-elektronnuyu-krov.html.