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7.6.2 Parallel Computers?

The neural modelling community at Caltech has been fortunate in gaining access to several parallel computers. One of these, the experimental supercomputer produced by Intel called the Intel Touchstone Delta and described in Chapter 2, held the record as the World's fastest computer while much of this work was being carried out. Unlike a traditional (serial) computer, a parallel computer is more analogous to our own biological computer (the nervous system) where tasks such as vision and hearing can continue to function independently of one another. The parallel style of computer would therefore seem to lend itself very well to neural modelling applications where many neural compartments (whether individual ion channels or whole cells) are active simultaneously [Nelson:89a;90b].



Guy Robinson
Wed Mar 1 10:19:35 EST 1995