Jointly developed by scientists from Hangzhou Dianzi University and Zhejiang University in east China's Zhejiang Province, the new chip, named "Darwin," was revealed earlier this week after more than a year of research.

"It can perform intelligent computer tasks by simulating a human brain's neural networks, in which neurons connect with one another via synapses," said Dr. Ma De from Hangzhou Dianzi University.

The black plastic piece is smaller than a dime, but is equipped with 2,048 neurons and four million synapses, two of the fundamental units that make up the human brain.

With the new chip, a computer can do more while using less electricity. "It can process 'fuzzy information' that conventional computer chips fail to process," said Shen Juncheng, a scientist from Zhejiang University.

For example, it can recognize numbers written by different people, distinguish among different images, and move objects on screen by receiving a user's brain signals.

The brain-like chip is expected to be used in robotics, intelligent hardware systems and brain-computer interfaces, but its development is still in the preliminary stage, according to Ma.

TrueNorth, an advanced brain-like chip developed by IBM, is on the United States' technology embargo list to China, so Chinese scientists had to start their research from scratch.

The development of Darwin marked a significant breakthrough in brain-inspired computing research in China. The research findings were published in the online English edition of "Science China: Information Sciences," an academic journal. (Xinhua)