NESIM-RT: A real-time distributed spiking neural network simulator

Abstract

The neuromorphic engineering field aims to mimic complex biological structures by means of mathematical models, implementing them in either analog or digital circuits. These models include the dynamic characteristics of biological neurons and synapses, which are interconnected creating spiking neural networks. These are first simulated using software frameworks in order to verify the expected behavior of the implemented model. In this work, a novel software, called NESIM-RT, for simulating spiking neural networks in real time is presented. A friendly user interface allows users to design and modify the network, together with visualising its output in real time. A novel implementation of the MDHCP protocol is proposed to support online changes in the network together with allowing the simulation in a many-cores distributed architecture. The performance of the proposed software is compared with other widely-used simulators in the neuromorphic engineering field, highlighting the advantages in terms of latencies and network scalability. NESIM-RT also allows exporting the SNN model directly to SpiNNaker, enabling an immediate transition between software simulation and hardware implementation