Chinese researchers build computer that thinks like a monkey

HANGZHOU, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese engineers on Saturday unveiled a new generation of brain-like computer, dubbed Darwin Monkey, that can mimic the workings of a macaque monkey's brain.

Developed by the national key lab of brain intelligence at Zhejiang University in east China's Zhejiang Province, the computer is equipped with 960 Darwin 3 chips, the third-generation brain-like neural processing units independently developed by the lab.

The chip array supports more than 2 billion pulsed neurons and over 100 billion synapses, making Darwin Monkey the world's first brain-like computer to combine advanced thinking abilities with vision, hearing, language and learning functions. It consumes approximately 2,000 watts of power under typical operating conditions.

The research team has successfully deployed several intelligent applications on the computer. It can run the DeepSeek brain-like large model to perform tasks such as logical reasoning, content generation and mathematical problem-solving. Leveraging its powerful neuronal and synaptic resources, the system can also preliminarily simulate animal brains of varying neuron sizes, including those of elegans, zebrafish, mice and macaques, offering new possibilities for brain science research.