Neuromorphic interconnects using Ultra Wideband radio

We present the architecture and testing of an address event representation (AER) wireless link that uses ultra wideband (UWB) radio as the physical layer. The wireless protocol layers from high to low level are: AER events, asynchronous handshaking, PRN coding, and UWB transmission. The top three layers are implemented in digital logic in an FPGA, while the UWB physical layer is implemented using discrete RF components. The combination of error detection during asynchronous handshaking and PRN codes add noise robustness to the wireless link. First we describe the implementation and testing of the UWB AER link, demonstrating the operation of the protocol. Second we analyze the capacity of a network of UWB AER nodes, finding it able to support several thousand neurons across multiple transmitters, even at relatively high sustained firing rates.