IBM unveils microchip based on the human brain

How to replicate the squishy sophistication of the human brain in hard metal and silicon? IBM thinks it's found a way, and to prove it has built and tested two new "cognitive computing" microchips whose design is inspired by the human brain.

In the mammalian brain, neurons send chemical signals to each other across tiny gaps called synapses. A neuron's long "tail", the axon, sends the signals from its multiple terminals; the receptive parts of other neurons – the dendrites – collect them.