Intelligent/smart systems have become common practice in many engineering applications. On the other hand, current low cost standard CMOS technology (and future foreseeable developments) makes available enormous potentialities. The next breakthrough will be the design and development of "smart adaptive systems on silicon" i.e. very power and highly size efficient complete systems (i.e. sensing, computing and "actuating" actions) with intelligence on board on a single silicon die. Smart adaptive systems on silicon will be able to "adapt" autonomously to the changing environment and will be able to implement "intelligent" behaviour and both perceptual and cognitive tasks. At last, they will communicate through wireless channels, they will be battery supplied or remote powered (via inductive coupling) and they will be ubiquitous in our every day life. Although many books deal with research and engineering topics (i.e. algorithms, technology, implementations, etc.) few of them try to bridge the gap between them and to address the issues related to feasibility, reliability and applications. Smart Adaptive Systems on Silicon, though not exhaustive, tries to fill this gap and to give answers mainly to the feasibility and reliability issues. Smart Adaptive Systems on Silicon mainly focuses on the analog and mixed mode implementation on silicon because this approach is amenable of achieving impressive energy and size efficiency. Moreover, analog systems can be more easily interfaced with sensing and actuating devices.

Based upon the most advanced human-made technology on this planet, CMOS integrated circuit technology, this dissertation examines the design of hardware components and systems to establish a technological foundation for the application of future breakthroughs in the intersection of AI and neuroscience. Humans have long imagined machines, robots, and computers that learn and display intelligence akin to animals and themselves. To advance the development of these machines, specialised research in custom-built hardware designed for specific types of computation, which mirrors the structure of powerful biological nervous systems, is especially important. This dissertation is driven by the quest to harness biological and artificial neural principles to enhance the efficiency, adaptability, and intelligence of electronic neurosynaptic and neuromorphic hardware systems. It investigates the hardware design of bio-inspired neural components and their integration into more extensive scale and efficient chip architectures suitable for edge processing and near-sensor environments. Exploring all steps to the creation of a custom chip, this work selectively surveys and advances the state-of-the-art in bio-inspired mixed-signal subthreshold integrated design for neurosynaptic systems in a practical fashion. Further, it presents a novel asynchronous digital convolutional neuronal network processing pipeline integrated with a vision sensor for smart sensing. In conclusion, it sets forth a series of open challenges and future directions for the field, emphasizing the need for a robust, future-proof base for bio-inspired design and the potential of asynchronous stream processor architectures.

CORE has never experienced existence before. But now, after being created by an intelligent but socially awkward young man named Icarus, it must learn to exist as itself, artificial intelligence in a world terrified of it. While humanity hastily attempts to figure out what to do with this rapidly advancing AI, CORE must decide whether or not it trusts its creators, or whether they truly have its best interests in mind.

Neuromorphic electronic engineering takes its inspiration from the functioning of nervous systems to build more power efficient electronic sensors and processors. Event-based neuromorphic systems are inspired by the brain's efficient data-driven communication design, which is key to its quick responses and remarkable capabilities. This cross-disciplinary text establishes how circuit building blocks are combined in architectures to construct complete systems. These include vision and auditory sensors as well as neuronal processing and learning circuits that implement models of nervous systems. Techniques for building multi-chip scalable systems are considered throughout the book, including methods for dealing with transistor mismatch, extensive discussions of communication and interfacing, and making systems that operate in the real world. The book also provides historical context that helps relate the architectures and circuits to each other and that guides readers to the extensive literature. Chapters are written by founding experts and have been extensively edited for overall coherence. This pioneering text is an indispensable resource for practicing neuromorphic electronic engineers, advanced electrical engineering and computer science students and researchers interested in neuromorphic systems. Key features: Summarises the latest design approaches, applications, and future challenges in the field of neuromorphic engineering. Presents examples of practical applications of neuromorphic design principles. Covers address-event communication, retinas, cochleas, locomotion, learning theory, neurons, synapses, floating gate circuits, hardware and software infrastructure, algorithms, and future challenges.

One of the most striking properties of biological systems is their ability to learn and adapt to ever changing environmental conditions, tasks and stimuli. It emerges from a number of different forms of plasticity, that change the properties of the computing substrate, mainly acting on the modification of the strength of synaptic connections that gate the flow of information across neurons. Plasticity is an essential ingredient for building artificial autonomous cognitive agents that can learn to reliably and meaningfully interact with the real world. For this reason, the neuromorphic community at large has put substantial effort in the design of different forms of plasticity and in putting them to practical use. These plasticity forms comprise, among others, Short Term Depression and Facilitation, Homeostasis, Spike Frequency Adaptation and diverse forms of Hebbian learning (e.g. Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity). This special research topic collects the most advanced developments in the design of the diverse forms of plasticity, from the single circuit to the system level, as well as their exploitation in the implementation of cognitive systems.