A novel GPU-enabled simulator for large scale spiking neural networks

Abstract

The understanding of the structural and dynamic complexity of neural networks is greatly facilitated by computer simulations. An ongoing challenge for simulating realistic models is, however, computational speed. In this paper a framework for modeling and parallel simulation of biological-inspired large scale spiking neural networks on high-performance graphics processors is described. This tool is implemented in the OpenCL programming technology. It enables simulation study with three models: Integrate-and-fire, Hodgkin-Huxley and Izhikevich neuron model. The results of extensive simulations are provided to illustrate the operation and performance of the presented software framework. The particular attention is focused on the computational speed-up factor.