The cortical simulator, called C2, integrates research from the fields of computation, computer memory, communication, and neuroscience to re-create 1 billion neurons connected by 10 trillion individual synapses. C2 runs on “Dawn,” a BlueGene/P supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in Livermore, Calif.

The IBM research shows that a model of the human brain—which has 20 billion neurons connected by about 200 trillion synapses—could be reached by 2019, given enough processing power. But Johns Hopkins University electrical and computer engineering professor Andreas Andreou says the C2 simulator underscores an undeniable fact—to better understand the brain, we’re going to need a better computer.

A major problem is power consumption. Dawn is one of the most powerful and power-efficient supercomputers in the world, but it takes 500 seconds for it to simulate 5 seconds of brain activity, and it consumes 1.4 MW. Extrapolating from today’s technology trends, IBM projects that the 2019 human-scale simulation, running in real time, would require a dedicated nuclear power plant.

IBM is also working separately on nanomaterials that could enable the construction of brainlike chips. In the final phase, it plans to build a system of 100 such chips simulating 100 million neurons and 1 trillion synapses.