Former NASA Chief Develops $100 Million Dollar "Brain-like" Neural Chip

Daniel Goldin may be done with his duties as NASA chief, but his penchant for out-of-this-world technology hasn't faded. The ex-head of the U.S. space agency just launched KnuEdge, a "brain-like" neural chip to improve data center efficiency.

Goldin's company raised a total of $100 million to create his state-of-the-art invention, which according to the company, is more cost efficient than the current models available today.

IBM is also working on a similar brain-like chip but it was KnuEdge who managed to launch first, according to a report by The Inquirer.

Goldin spent nine years as NASA chief; during his tenure, he was particularly involved with the International Space Station (ISS). But after his stint, he worked in secret for the startup he launched, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

KnuEdge was started a decade ago by Goldin. Goldin patterned his brain-like neural chip on the computer design by John von Neumann, where memory and processor are separated through a data pathway or bus. The speed of the computer is highly dependent on the bus capacity. This bottleneck issue is what Goldin wants to address.

The former NASA chief said that his idea to build the neural chip sprouted when he noticed a delay in the control of space vehicles. He said that it would take too long to control a spacecraft so the vehicle would need to possess the ability to control itself. That's when Goldin ventured into the world of robotics and neural chips.

According to the company, most of the technology they developed is based on biological principles including the neural chip. Programmers can input algorithms to run the chip which makes it generally powerful and at the same time, totally controllable. With Goldin's neural chip and its programmable interface, he believes that it will be beneficial to people around the world, including those who can't read or write.

"I want to be able to take machine learning and help people communicate and make a living," he said in an interview with VentureBeat. "This is just the beginning. This is the Wild West. We are talking to very large companies about this, and they are getting very excited."

And despite his intention to make his technology beneficial to everyone on Earth, Goldin said he would love to use this technology to the Mars-bound crew of NASA.