Maintaining real-time synchrony on SpiNNaker

Abstract

As an asynchronous universal multiprocessor for real-time neural simulation, SpiNNaker presents timing concerns not present in synchronous systems. In this paper we present a series of tools that solve the problem of synchronising a multichip distributed simulation containing multiple independent time domains. These tools hint at an important neural modelling capability of the SpiNNaker system: the ability to decouple the system time from the model time, leading to an abstract-time neural modelling platform.