SpikeStream

Overview

SpikeStream is a general purpose spiking neural simulator that is fast, flexible and easy to use. It is available for free download under the terms of the GPL and has the following key features:

  • Database storage. SpikeStream is based around a number of databases that hold the neurons, connections, parameters, archives and analyses.
  • Plugin architecture. Key functions, such as network creation, simulation and analysis are implemented as plugins, which makes it easy to customize and extend the functionality.
  • Hardware acceleration. A plugin wrapping the NeMo simulator is included in the SpikeStream distribution. NeMo uses the CUDA hardware acceleration of NVIDIA graphics cards to simulate the Izhikevich neural model.
  • Sophisticated visualization and editing tools. An intuitive graphical user interface (see Figure 1) has been created for the creation and editing of neuron and connection groups and to control the simulation and archiving. Neural activity and archived simulation runs can be viewed in three dimensions.
  • C++ / Qt. The simulator is written in C++ using Qt for the GUI.
SpikeStream neural simulator

Figure 1. SpikeStream neural simulator

Current Status

Preparation of the next version of SpikeStream is nearly complete, and it should be available in the last quarter of 2010. This release will include the NeMo CUDA hardware acceleration and run on Windows, Linux and possibly Mac OS X. Join the SpikeStream mailing list if you would like to be notified of this release, which will be available from the SpikeStream website.

Download, Documentation and Mailing List

Information about downloading and installing SpikeStream is available at the SpikeStream website: http://spikestream.sf.net.

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