About a week ago the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US bought the first chip from IBM Research which it is calling a neurosynaptic or Neuromophic computer chip meaning it is one which mimics human architectures. It is being sold as TrueNorth – and is just out. This is said to emulate human neurons and this deal involves a configuration which is the equivalent of 16 million neurons and 4 billion synapses, but it only consumes the energy equivalent of a tablet – a mere 2.5 watts of power. This is the result of 200 collaborators working together since 2008, and IBM says that it can be installed just as easily in a smartphone as a supercomputer in the…