Spiking Neural Network-Based Digit Pattern Recognition in FPGA

The scientific community has major challenges in understanding how the brain works and recreating it in various forms, whether biological or computer. There is strong evidence that such a feat could be accomplished, given that we ourselves are an example of an intelligent system, even though time travel and faster-than-light travel remain unattainable goals. It may be possible to develop a system capable of awareness and responsive interaction with the outside world by mimicking brain function. The fundamental goal of this work is to build a digital system that can mimic the behavior of spiking neural networks on a single chip. It attempts to carry out mental processes including reasoning, speech recognition, movement, and visual processing. The system is described using VHDL, a high-level hardware description language, to create a compromise between simplicity, efficiency, and performance without sacrificing the precision necessary for simulating neural networks.