Version 1.1 Released
July 7, 2008
We have released version 1.1 today as an update to version 1.0.0. This update does not include the project files but must be installed over an already existing installation. The new version mainly consists of bug fixes and the complete WebUI.
Testing CUDA
July 3, 2008
We have tested the math performance on the GPU to test if it would be possible to increase the speed of Ikaros matrix operations. The results of a matrix multiplication running on NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT are promissing since it is about 3 times faster than the currently fastest implementation in Ikaros on a 2 x DualCore Intel Xeon computer. The CUDA version ran more than 3000 times faster than the unoptimized version in Ikaros.
What is Ikaros?
The Ikaros project started in 2001 and its goal is to develop an open infrastructure for system level modeling of the brain including databases of experimental data, computational models and functional brain data. The system makes heavy use of the emerging standards for Internet based information and will make all information accessible through an open web-based interface. In addition, Ikaros can be used as a control architecture for robots which in the extension will lead to the deveopment of a brain inspired robot architecture.
The main components of the Ikaros systems are:
- A platform independent simulation kernel
- A set of computational brain models
- A set of I/O modules for interfacing with data files and peripheral such as robots or video cameras
- Tools for building systems of interconnected models
- A plug-in architecture that allows new models to be easily added to the system
- A database with data from learning experiments that can be used for validation of the computational models.