jer%peora@peora.UUCP (04/30/86)
> A slug has about 20000 nuerons and the functions of some are well known. > The "taste" function of a slug is handled by 6 neurons . The claim is that > "This is at clearly a capability of at least microprocessor caliber" > so I suppose we could assume a vlsi slug would need something on the > order of a cray to function in true slug form! That statement in EE Times was sort of irritating. They seemed to be reasoning that "we need a whole microprocessor to perform this function, so a lot of microprocessors in parallel would be required to simulate a slug." Of course, slugs don't have any microprocessors, so that is a sort of absurd claim... rather, perhaps, the functional units in the slug dedicated to "taste", etc., are very simple but specialized to "taste". This maybe suggests that a slug-simulator should be built out of less generalized functional units than whole microprocessors. Related to this, I have been thinking of an interesting thing. It would be relatively hard, maybe, to build a dense array of neuron-like functional units because we usually do so by depositing layers photographically onto a silicon wafer. But in biological systems, the array of neurons making up the brain grows in 3-dimensions as it develops. It would be really useful to be able to devise IC fabrication techniques that "grew" the ICs in 3 dimensions at once. (Not that it is possible nowadays, of course! :-)) -- E. Roskos