The Impact of On-chip Communication on Memory Technologies for Neuromorphic Systems

Abstract: Emergent nanoscale non-volatile memory technologies with high integration density offer a promising solution to overcome the scalability limitations of CMOS-based neural networks architectures, by efficiently exhibiting the key principle of neural computation. Despite the potential improvements in computational costs, designing high-performance on-chip communication networks that support flexible, large-fanout connectivity remains as daunting task. In this paper, we elaborate on the communication requirements of large-scale neuromorphic designs, and point out the differences with the conventional network-on-chip architectures. We present existing approaches for on-chip neuromorphic routing networks, and discuss how new memory and integration technologies may help to alleviate the communication issues in constructing next-generation intelligent computing machines.