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Need WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5? Then try out UniSoC UWP5661

Posted on 26 November, 2018 by Ayo Ayibiowu

WiFi 5 also known as 802.11ac has been around for a while now, but few boards have adopted it. The WiFi 5 might easily be confused with the general WiFi (802.11 b/g/n). The WiFi standard 802.11ac is capable of 1300 megabits per second (Mbps) which is the equivalent of 162.5 megabytes per second (MBps), this is 3x faster than the typical 450Mbps speed attributed to 802.11n. So obviously WiFi 5 promise so much in the development of next-generation IoT and connected applications.

WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity almost always come together and having both WiFi and Bluetooth always gives a system more robustness. The Expressif ESP32 WiSoC is one of such solutions that offers engineers Wifi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.2 but what about the early movers that wants to try the best of both technologies, i.e., WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5? Well, Espressif Systems doesn’t yet offer anything in that domain, instead you might have to consider the less known UniSoC UWP5661 Arm Cortex-M4 WiSoC chip.

Little information is currently available about the WiSoC chip, but the SoC is what will power the soon to be launch IVY5661 96Boards IoT Edition board that features 802.11ac (WiFi 5) and Bluetooth 5 by UcRobotics. The new IoT hardware platform is believed to run the Zephyr OS, and no build documentation is currently available as nothing is available on the product page here.

Below are some the IVY5661 board specifications:

SoC – UniSoC UWP5661 dual core Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller @ 416 MHz manufactured with 28nm process
Storage – 32Mbit NOR flash
Connectivity (built-in SoC) – Dual-band 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO WiFi, Bluetooth 5
USB – 2x Micro USB
Expansion Interface – 96boards LS (Low Speed) connector with UART, I2C, SPI, I2S, GPIO
Misc – 4x user LED, 2x reset and user button
Power Supply – 5V via Micro USB port
Dimensions – 60 x 30 mm (96Boards IoT edition form factor)

Well, that’s all we know about the UniSoC UWP5661 Arm Cortex-M4 WiSoC chip and the IVY5661 96Boards IoT Edition board pending to be launched. For the meantime, we will keep working around the ESP32 WiSoC while appreciating the amazing community making all these possible.

Qualcomm Launches 10nm, octa-core QCS605 IoT SoC

Posted on 26 November, 2018 by Tope Oluyemi

Qualcomm announced back in April its QCS605 SoC, calling it “the first 10nm FinFET fabricated SoC, built for the Internet of Things.” The octa-core Arm SoC is available in an Intrinsyc Open-Q 605 SBC with full development kit, including a 12V power supply which is available for pre-order at $429. The product will ship in early December. The QCS605 has a Qualcomm Vision Intelligence Platform, a set of mostly software components that include the Qualcomm Neural Processing SDK and camera processing software and also the company’s 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth connectivity and security technologies.

The QCS605 can run on Linux or Android, but Open-Q 605 board supports only Android 8.1. Intrinsyc also recently released an Open-Q 624A Development Kit modeled on a new Open-Q 624A SOM. The QCS605 SoC is equipped with 8x Kryo 300 CPU cores, two of which are 2.5GHz “gold” cores that are equal to Cortex-A75. The other six are 1.7GHz “silver” cores like the Cortex-A55 — Arm’s more powerful follow-on to Cortex-A53. The QCS605 also incorporates an Adreno 615 GPU, a Hexagon 685 DSP with Hexagon vector extensions (“HVX”), and a Spectra 270 ISP that supports dual 16-megapixel image sensors. Qualcomm also has a QCS603 model on sale, which is identical except that it has only 2x of the 1.7GHz “Silver” cores instead of six.

Qualcomm markets the QCS605 as part of a Vision Intelligence Platform, which is a combination of software and hardware starting with a Qualcomm AI Engine built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine (NPE) software framework. The NPE enables analysis, optimization, and debugging tools for developing with Tensorflow, Caffe, and Caffe2 frameworks. The AI Engine also includes the Open Neural Network Exchange interchange format, the Android Neural Networks API, and the Qualcomm Hexagon Neural Network library, which enables the porting of trained networks.

The Vision Intelligence Platform available on the QCS605 offers up to 2.1 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of compute performance for deep neural network inferences, according to Qualcomm. The platform also supports up to 4K @ 60fps resolution or 5.7K at 30fps and supports multiple simultaneous video streams at a lower resolution. The board also features a “staggered” HDR to prevent ghost effects in the high-dynamic-range video.

Also, advanced electronic image stabilization, de-warp, de-noise, chromatic aberration correction, and motion compensated temporal filters in hardware are available. Apart from the Snapdragon 600 based Open-Q 600, the Open-Q 605 is the only Open-Q development board that Intrinsyc tags as an SBC. Many of Open-Q’s kits are compute modules or sandwich-style carrier board starter kits based on Intrinsyc modules fitted with Snapdragon SoCs, such as the recent, Snapdragon 670 based Open-Q 670 HDK. The 68 x 50mm Open-Q 605 will ship with an eMCP package with 4GB LPDDR4x RAM and 32GB eMMC flash, and additional storage is available through a microSD slot.

The QCS605 depends on the 802.11ac (WiFi 5) and Bluetooth 5.x radios for networking. A Qualcomm GNSS receiver for location and 3x U.FL connectors is also available. The QCS605 is equipped with a real-world coastline port USB Type-C that supports DisplayPort 1.4 with 4K@30fps support. If you want to use the Type-C port for USB or charging a user-supplied Li-Ion battery, you can resort to an HD-ready MIPI DSI interface with touch support. 2x MIPI-CSI is also available for dual cameras, as well as 2x analog audio. The Open-Q 605 has a 76-pin expansion header for other interfaces, including an I2S/SLIMBus digital audio interface. The board runs on a 5-15V DC input and offers an extended -25 to 60°C operating range.

Specifications listed for the Open-Q 605 SBC include:

Processor — Qualcomm QCS605 with Vision Intelligence Platform (2x up to 2.5GHz and 6x up to 1.7GHz Krait 300 cores); Adreno 615 GPU; Hexagon 685 DSP; Spectra 270 ISP; Qualcomm AI Engine and other VIP components
Memory/storage — 4GB LPDDR4X and 32GB eMMC flash in combo eMCP package; microSD slot.
Wireless: 802.11b/g/n/ac 2×2 dual-band WiFi (Qualcomm WCN3990) with planned FCC/IC/CE certification, Bluetooth 5.x, Qualcomm GNSS (SDR660G) receiver with Qualcomm Location Suite Gen9 VT, U.FL antenna connectors for WiFi, BT, GNSS
Media I/O: DisplayPort 1.4 via USB Type-C up to 4K@30 with USB data concurrency (USB and power), MIPI DSI (4-lane) with I2C touch interface on flex cable connector for up to 1080p30, 2x MIPI-CSI (4-lane) with micro-camera module connectors, 2x analog mic I/Ps, speaker O/P, headset I/O, I2S/SLIMBus digital audio interface with 2x DMIC ports (via 76-pin expansion header)
Expansion — 76-pin header (multiple SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, and sensor I/O; digital and analog audio I/O, LED flash O/P, haptic O/P, power output rails
Other features — 3x LEDs; 4x mounting holes; optional dev kit with quick start guide, docs, SW updates
Operating temperature — -25 to 60°C
Power — 5-15V DC jack and support for user-supplied Li-Ion battery with USB Type-C charging; PM670 + PM670L PMIC; 12V supply with dev kit
Dimensions — 68 x 50 x 13mm
Operating system — Android 8.1 Oreo

Further information may be found in Intrinsyc’s Open-Q 605 announcement, as well as the product page and shopping page.

HSN-1000 Nuclear Event Detector

Posted on 26 November, 201826 November, 2018 by mixos

DDC’s HSN-1000 radiation-hardened Hybrid Nuclear Event Detector (NED) senses ionizing radiation pulses generated by a nuclear event, such as the detonation of a nuclear weapon, and rapidly switches its output from the normal high state to a low state with a propagation delay time of less than 20ns. The active low Nuclear Event Detection signal (NED) is used to initiate a wide variety of circumvention functions, thus preventing upset and burnout of electronic components. The NED output is also used to initiate both hardware and software recovery. This high-speed, 14-pin hybrid detector is used in electronic systems as a general-purpose circumvention device to protect memory, stop data processing, and drive power supply switches as well as signal clamps.

The HSN-1000 is guaranteed to operate through three critical environments: ionizing dose rate [10¹² rad(Si)/s], gamma total dose [10⁶ rad(Si)], and neutron fluence [5 x 10¹³ n/cm²]. In addition, the device is designed to function throughout the transient neutron pulse. The hybrid’s discrete design ensures a controlled response in these radiation environments as well as immunity to latchup. Each HSN-1000’s detection level and functionality are tested in an ionizing dose rate environment. A certificate is provided with each serialized hybrid, reporting the radiation test results and guaranteeing its performance. The device is also lot qualified in the total dose and neutron environments to ensure performance.

The detection threshold of the HSN-1000 is adjustable within the range of 2 x 10⁵ rad(Si)/s to 2 x 10⁷ rad(Si)/s. This detection level can be preset by DDC or adjusted by the user. Less than a 30% variation in detection threshold can be expected over the entire operating temperature range.

Features:

Detects ionizing radiation pulses
100% tested/certified detection threshold level
Adjustable circumvention period
100% testable with built-in test
Detection threshold adjustability
Single +5V operation
Radiation hardness guaranteed
Compliant to MIL-PRF-38534 Class H
Flat pack (F) or DIP (L) packages

Radiation Hardness Characteristics:

Dose Rate (operate-through): 1 x 10¹² rad(Si)/sec
Total Dose: 1 x 10⁶ rad(Si)
Neutron Fluence: 5 x 10¹³ n/cm2
Approximate Detection Range: 2 x 10⁵ – 2 x 10⁷ rad(Si)/sec
DDC Specified, Controlled, Tested and Guaranteed

more information: www.ddc-web.com
Datasheet: www.maxwell.com

Bluetooth 5 transceivers are self-powered

Posted on 26 November, 201826 November, 2018 by mixos

Atmosic Technologies Inc. (Saratoga, CA) has launched the M2 and M3 Bluetooth 5.0 transceiver chips, claiming them to be the lowest power Bluetooth wireless chips available.

Atmosic took a wireless agnostic approach to determine the most power-efficient foundation for its first IoT connectivity solutions. To radically reduce power consumption, Atmosic has developed three key technologies: Lowest Power Radio, On-demand Wake-up, and Controlled Energy Harvesting. With Lowest Power Radio and On-demand Wake-Up, Atmosic enables 10X to 100X lower power, reducing power utilization to a level that Controlled Energy Harvesting is a viable power source. With the addition of Controlled Energy Harvesting, the solution can deliver forever battery life or battery-free operation.

Lowest Power Radio is based on the team’s extensive wireless and low-power experience, which has enabled Atmosic to achieve radical power performance improvements while maintaining full standards compliance.

To create On-demand Wake-Up, Atmosic has implemented two levels of listening: one provides the lowest level of “radio consciousness” to perceive incoming transmissions; the other is a deep sleeper, waking only when alerted to incoming transmissions by the “radio consciousness” portion. On-demand Wake-Up requires coordination with the host, which would send a special pattern to wake-up, causing Atmosic ICs within range to wake-up. While this may cause some radios to wake-up unnecessarily, the number of wakeups will still be vastly lower than a typical beacon’s 86,400 wake-ups per day based on a time interval of one second.

Instead of relying on ambient energy harvesting, which is inherently unpredictable, Atmosic’s Controlled Energy Harvesting technology is based on a known energy source that can be controlled to guarantee robust, deterministic functionality while minimizing the system dependence on battery power. The technology can work in the 2.4GHz or 900MHz bands. As an example, a computer could be used to emit a deterministic RF energy source for a mouse or wireless keyboard in close proximity.

For its first products, Atmosic recently unveiled the industry’s lowest power standards-compliant wireless Bluetooth 5 platforms, according to the company, comprising the M2 and M3 series. Bluetooth 5 provides performance increases over legacy Bluetooth by 4X the range (now comparable to Wi-Fi), 2X the speed, and 8X the bandwidth.

The Atmosic M2 Series Bluetooth 5 SoC features Lowest Power Radio delivering 5X to 10X lower power; the addition of On-demand Wake-up reduces power by 10X to 100X. The Atmosic M3 Series Bluetooth 5 SoC adds Controlled Energy Harvesting to provide forever battery life or eliminate the need for battery power. Packaging options for the M2 and M3 Series include flash and non-flash, 5×5 QFN, and 6×6 DRQFN packages. The ICs incorporate an Arm Cortex-M0 processor and assorted peripherals to form a complete solution.

www.atmosic.com

Rohde & Schwarz RTB2000 oscilloscope series start at €1.250

Posted on 24 November, 201817 January, 2019 by mixos

Power of ten (10-bit ADC, 10 Msample memory and 10.1″ touchscreen) combined with smart operating concepts make the R&S^®RTB2000 oscilloscopes the perfect tool for university laboratories, for troubleshooting embedded designs during development and for production and service departments.

RTB2000 has the largest display (10.1″) with the highest resolution of 1280 × 800 pixel in its class, a capacitive touchscreen to quickly navigate in pop-up menus and a touch function to easily adjust scaling, to zoom in or to move a waveform – it works just like your smartphone.

The 10-bit A/D converter provides up to a fourfold improvement when compared to the conventional 8-bit A/D converters. You get sharper waveforms with more signal details.

10 Msample memory depth is available for each active channel. When interleaved, even 20 Msample are available. That is 10 times more than comparable oscilloscopes offer. This captures longer signal sequences for more analysis results.

Features:

Bandwidth: 70 MHz to 300 MHz
Sample rate: up to 2.5 Gsample/s
Memory depth: up to 20 Msample
ADC resolution: 10 bit
Display: 10.1″ capacitive touchscreen

The R&S® RTB2000 gives users more than just an oscilloscope. It also includes logic analyzer, protocol analyzer, waveform and pattern generator and digital voltmeter.

Dedicated operating modes for frequency analysis, mask, tests and long data acquisitions are also integrated. Debugging all kinds of electronic systems is easy and efficient.

Prices starting at €1.250. More information here: www.rohde-schwarz.com

PDF Brochure

Rohde & Schwarz optimises power supplies for educational applications

Posted on 23 November, 201823 November, 2018 by mixos

The new power supply series consists of the R&S NGE102B with two channels and the R&S NGE103B with three channels. They are suitable for various applications in education and production as well as in R&D labs. With these new features, Rohde & Schwarz is addressing the educational sector in particular.

The power supplies’ new colour-coding of the channels simplifies operation. Thanks to regulated fans, the R&S NGE100B series is also particularly quiet. In addition, the inputs and outputs are now equipped with safety binding posts, eliminating the need for adapters. The R&S NGE100B series power supplies can be remotely controlled via the integrated USB interface and optionally via LAN or WLAN, which is especially useful for education.

Galvanically isolated channels

In addition, the R&S NGE100B series features some functions that are exceptional in this price class: all channels are galvanically isolated, floating and electrically identical. This allows each channel to be operated as an independent power supply. Higher output voltages and currents can be achieved by combining the channels in serial or in parallel.

Adjustable maximum current, voltage and power

The easy-to-use safety functions protect the device under test and the power supply, even in complex setups. This allows maximum voltages and currents to be set and shutdown scenarios to be defined.

Basic equipment for educational applications

Combined with the R&S RTB2000 oscilloscope, the R&S FPC1500 spectrum analyser and the R&S HM8012 digital multimeter, the R&S NGE100B power supplies are ideal for universities and R&D laboratories. These instruments are all part of the company’s Value Instruments portfolio, which offers high-performance entry-level T&M equipment at competitive prices.

The power supplies are available now from Rohde & Schwarz and selected sales partners, with prices starting at EUR 650. The new series is replacing the R&S NGE100 series. Rohde & Schwarz will continue to provide software updates, service and maintenance for the R&S NGE100 predecessor series.

more information: www.rohde-schwarz.com/product/nge100b

High accuracy 3-axis inclinometer with digital true inclination angle output

Posted on 23 November, 201823 November, 2018 by mixos

Murata has announced a new 3-axis inclination sensor with a tilt angle output and digital SPI interface. The high performance SCL3300 series of devices will be used in a variety of demanding applications including levelling, tilt sensing, machine control and structural health monitoring.

Based on Murata’s proven 3D-MEMS sensing technology, the SCL3300-D01 is a 3-axis (XYZ) inclinometer with four user selectable measurement modes which can be used to optimise the sensor’s performance for different applications and their requirements. The highly integrated device includes a mixed signal ASIC for signal processing along with a flexible digital interface that removes the need for an external ADC, reducing size, power use and design complexity. The SCL3300-D01 features sophisticated tilt angle conversion inside the sensor which enables simple and robust application software and reduces required engineering work. Robust sensor design and advanced self-diagnostics features ensure that the output from the device can be relied on at all times.

The SCL3300-D01 inclinometer provides a ±90° tilt angle output which simplifies measuring software and device usage. The device operates from -40 °C to +125 °C with a typical offset temperature drift less than ±10 mg across the entire operating temperature range. The ultra-low noise density is as low as 0.001°/√Hz for high measurement resolution.

The SCL3300-D01 operates from a single 3.3 V supply and is ideal for battery-powered operation in remote locations, including IoT-based applications, due to a typical sleep mode current draw of just 3 μA.

Housed in a 12-pin pre-moulded plastic housing (8.6 mm x 7.6 mm x 3.3 mm LxWxH) that guarantees reliable operation over the product’s lifetime, the inclinometer is suitable for SMD mounting and is compatible with the RoHS and ELV directives.

more information: www.murata.com

Commercialised 1005-size metal power inductor

Posted on 23 November, 2018 by mixos

Over 60% Smaller than Conventional Products, Contributing to the Development of Smaller Wearable Devices. [via]

The expansion of the line-up of the metal multilayer chip power inductor MCOIL MC series, from TAIYO YUDEN, which uses a metallic magnetic material, as well as the commercialisation of the tiny metal power inductor MCEE1005 (1.0×0.5×0.55mm, maximum height), has been announced.

This power inductor is used as a power choke coil in power supply circuits for wearable devices, smartphones, and IoT devices. By sophisticating material and multilayer techniques, TAIYO YUDEN has successfully commercialised the 1005-size metal power inductor, achieving a volume that is reportedly over 60% smaller than its conventional product, MCFK1608 (1.6×0.8×0.6mm), and will contribute to developing smaller and thinner mobile devices such as wearable devices.

Production of the product started at the subsidiary company, WAKAYAMA TAIYO YUDEN in Japan’s Wakayama prefecture from September 2018 at a production rate of 10 million units per month.

Today’s market for smartwatches, wristband-type wearable devices, and IoT devices like sensor network devices requires not only reduced size and thickness but also highly efficient power supply circuits for longer operating time. While smartphones are getting thinner, they use higher-speed processors for higher performance and multi-core processors for higher efficiency.

Since high-speed multi-core processors, which are driven by lower voltage and larger current, use appropriate cores in accordance with processor load, each core is equipped with a dedicated power supply circuit, which requires small and thin power inductors with a large current capacity.

To address this market need, TAIYO YUDEN has commercialised its metal multilayer chip power inductor MCOIL MC series, which uses a metallic magnetic material with high DC bias characteristics and has the advantage of being small and thin.

more information: www.yuden.co.jp/or/

Gyrfalcon Launches Second-Gen AI Accelerator Chip

Posted on 23 November, 201822 November, 2018 by mixos

Lightspeeur 2803 – a follow on to the Lightspeeur 2801S ASIC – enables upgrading of existing data center hardware to speed AI processing while providing 10X reduction in energy consumption.

Gyrfalcon Technology Inc. (GTI), the world’s leading developer of low-cost, low-power, high-performance Artificial Intelligence (AI) processors, today announced the availability of its second-generation chip, the Lightspeeur 2803 AI Accelerator. The chip is designed to be used in multiple chip board solutions, initially on the G.A.I.N. Series 2803, and meets the demanding requirements of data centers supporting inference server AI operations.

The rapid adoption of AI is quickly requiring organizations of all types to rethink their data center hardware to accommodate higher performance computing loads. Incorporating AI will require a considerable investment in new hardware if organizations rely on traditional data center vendors. The Lightspeeur 2803 and G.A.I.N. Series 2803 are unique in their ability to pair with existing data center CPUs to improve AI performance while significantly reducing energy costs; all it takes are slight software modifications.

Customers can upgrade the existing equipment in their data centers to AI, with a rapid deployment of our patented and proprietary technology that will bring unprecedented performance advantages using 10 times less energy,” said Marc Nadell, VP of marketing, GTI. “The Lightspeeur 2803 represents a cost-effective solution for cloud providers and other data center operators to optimize their ROI on previous hardware investments, while expanding their ability to provide the highest levels of AI processing performance available in the market today.

Higher performance, lower energy costs

For cloud service providers looking to expand performance while mitigating rising energy costs, the Lightspeeur 2803 provides a solution to upgrade existing equipment, rather than replace entire systems. Data center operators can add the chip – on the G.A.I.N. Series 2803 board – into existing racks, alongside their current hardware, and use software to integrate the new AI accelerator board into their operations. After data models are loaded, operators can add their data and begin processing.

The G.A.I.N. Series 2803 consumes 10 times less energy than comparable chips, meaning data center operators can improve performance, without adding additional cooling systems. Additionally, all G.A.I.N. Series boards are designed to work with existing rack-mounted processors as cohosts to the operation, and provide tools that enable the operator to create custom data models.

Balancing the increasing need for high-performance inference processing with data center space, thermal limitations, and the rising cost of energy has become increasingly challenging,” said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at TIRIAS Research. “With solutions like the 2803 chips and the G.A.I.N. Series of boards, data centers have more options for balancing these.

Technical specifications

The single chip Lightspeeur 2803 delivers 16.8 TOPS at just 0.7 w, with latency as low as 2 milliseconds for extremely impressive responsiveness. The Lightspeeur 2803 supports a PCIe interface, and includes ResNet, MobileNet, ShiftNet and VGG neural networks to support AI model sizes from 4.4 to 17.6MB for inference and training.

The G.A.I.N. Series 2803 board will join the other products available from GTI: the G.A.I.N. Series 2801S multichip board configuration for advanced edge and data center applications; and the Lightspeeur 2801S Neural Accelerator, the industry’s first commercially available, deep-learning, convolutional neural network (CNN) accelerator chip to run audio and video processing. Both 2801 products have been available to customers including Fujitsu, LG and Samsung since the beginning of 2018.

Samples of the Lightspeeur 2803 chip and the G.A.I.N. Series 2803 board will be available for development with customers in Q4 2018.

For more information on GTI’s product portfolio, visit https://gyrfalcontech.ai/solutions/

World’s Largest Neuromorphic Supercomputer goes Live

Posted on 22 November, 2018 by Tope Oluyemi

The world’s largest neuromorphic supercomputer built to process information in a similar manner to the natural brain function has finally gone live. The supercomputer is made up of 1,000,000 processor cores which the developers are planning on upgrading to 1,000,000,000 cores in the near future, making the supercomputer a little closer to the number of neurons currently firing up inside our brains. The new SpiNNNaker (Spiking Neural Network Architecture) machine has 1 million processor cores, with each capable of handling more than 200 million actions per second.

The machine is the result of a £15 million investment which funded the 20-year design phase and more than 10-year construction phase. Work on the project began at the University of Manchester’s School of Computer in 2006. The project was originally funded by the EPSRC, but is now supported by the European Human Brain Project. The processing behemoth was finally fired up for the first time this weekend.

Prof Furber:

The ultimate objective for the project has always been a million cores in a single computer for real time brain modelling applications, and we have now achieved it, which is fantastic.

neuroscientists can now use SpiNNaker to help unlock some of the secrets of how the human brain works by running unprecedentedly large scale simulations. It also works as real-time neural simulator that allows roboticists to design large scale neural networks into mobile robots so they can walk, talk and move with flexibility and low power.

The SpiNNNaker machine models far more biological neurons in real time compared to other computers in the world. Natural neurons are essential for communication between brain cells and this is achieved by emitting electrical ‘spikes’. The neuromorphic computer uses powerful computer systems to imitate these spikes. Compared to a PC, SpiNNNaker does not pass large amounts of information serially. Instead, it stimulates the brain’s massively parallel communication structure. Billions of little pieces of information are simultaneously transmitted to thousands of different locations. This structure is meant to enable it to function more like a biological brain than a conventional computer could.

The research team hopes to eventually model up to one billion neurons in real time. By comparison, a mouse has a brain containing around 100 million neurons, and our brain is about 1000 times larger. One billion neurons are about 1% of the neurons inside our head, and these 100 billion neurons are connected via 1 quadrillion (10^15) synapses. The new computer with its millions of cores should enable neuroscientists to get a better understanding of how our brain functions because it enables extremely large real-time simulations that simply overload conventional machines.

Source: University of Manchester