Neuromorphic Computing and Applications: A Topical Review

Neuromorphic computers achieve energy efficiency by emulating brain structure and event-driven processing that reduces energy consumption significantly. An increasing interest in this technology started in the initial years of this millennium, sparked by the awareness and concern on the ever-increasing power demands of modern-day computing. In current times, there are several neuromorphic computers and sensors that continue to be developed in both industry and academic research. The focus of this survey is on the neuromorphic computing applications of these devices that include brain-inspired neural networks, brain-inspired artificial neural networks, and Hybrid circuits comprising both artificial and brain-inspired units of computation. Many of these applications use neuromorphic sensors as input devices. We have surveyed three specific neuromorphic computers viz. SpiNNaker, TrueNorth, Loihi, and one neuromorphic sensor viz. Dynamic vision sensor (DVS)-based electronic retina; the demonstration of neuromorphic computing and applications using these devices far outnumbers those on the others that are currently available, which forms the basis of our choice. The applications include low-power cognitive machine intelligence as well as neuropathological understanding and knowledge discovery. Overall, our survey identifies the potential for neuromorphic computing to provide low power, low cost, and dynamic solutions for societal and scientific problems in the not-too-distant future.