To quote DARPA: http://www.artificialbrains.com/darpa-synapse-program "SyNAPSE is a DARPA-funded program to develop electronic neuromorphic machine technology that scales to biological levels. More simply stated, it is an attempt to build a new kind of computer with similar form and function to the mammalian brain. Such artificial brains would be used to build robots whose intelligence matches that of mice and cats. "SyNAPSE is a backronym standing for Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics. It started in 2008 and as of June 2012 has received $102.6 million in funding. It is scheduled to run until around 2016. The project is contracted to IBM, HRL Laboratories, and four US universities: California Merced, Columbia University Medical Center, Cornell, and Wisconsin-Madison. "The ultimate aim is to build an electronic microprocessor system that matches a mammalian brain in function, size, and power consumption. It should recreate 10 billion neurons, 100 trillion synapses, consume one kilowatt (same as a small electric heater), and occupy less than two liters of space." IBM's take: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/business_analytics/article/cognit... YouTube summary: http://youtu.be/agYJSdMWXYQ