Analogue VLSI Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Neurons and Their Use in a Sound Analysis System

Integrate-and-fire neurons are simple model neurons which can handle continuously time-varying signals. We have applied them to problems in real-time analysis of sounds. Two different chips have been built: the first had a fixed network architecture with all synaptic weights identical, and the second is reconfigurable with individually programmable weights. We present results characterising the latter chip, and results from processing real data from the earlier chip. We note that the second chip provides a more general integrate-and-fire neuron implementation.