Cognitive computer
A cognitive computer combines artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms, in an approach which attempts to reproduce the behaviour of the human brain.[1]
An example is provided by the IBM company's Watson machine. A subsequent development by IBM is the TrueNorth microchip architecture, which is designed to be closer in structure to the human brain that the von Neumann architecture used in conventional computers.[1]
The IBM cognitive computers implement learning using Hebbian theory. Instead of being programmable in a traditional sense within machine language or a higher level programming language such a device learns by inputting instances through an input device that are aggregated within a computational convolution or neural network architecture consisting of weights within a parallel memory system. An early instantiation of such a device has been developed in 2012 under the Darpa SyNAPSE program at IBM directed by Dharmendra Modha.