Speaker:  Dr Terrence Mak

Assistant Professor,

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

 

Dr Mak presented an inspiring talk on the recent advances in computer chips. In the past few years, it has been predicted that the famous Moore’s Law of computer evolution is coming to an end, as the speeds of computer chips are beginning to hit their physical limits, and the growth is reaching saturation. Dr Mak presented several new ideas in computer chip design for building the next generation of computer devices. The first is a hard-wired neural network that mimics the function of a human brain. Using hundreds of millions of interconnected chips and wires that mimic brain neurons, we are able to simulate the processing power of up to 1% of the human brain. Comparing to the brain, the hard-wired neural network has a faster processing speed per neuron and a faster data transmission speed, but with a lower degree of interconnection between the neurons. The second recent advance is the initial design of a 3D computer chip. A prototype consisting of three layers has been developed and the researchers are able to report up to 50% improvement in processing power comparing with the 2D equivalent.