Nexa is an experimental neural simulator for parallel simulation of large-scale neural network models at a high level of biological abstraction and for exploration of the simulation methods involved.
It includes among other things:
- Parallelization using the Message Passing Interface (MPI).
- Firing-rate models.
- Capabilities to build networks using machine learning inspired methods for e.g. self-organization of network architecture and for structural plasticity.
- Analysis running in parallel beside the simulation.
Also see
Benjaminsson, S. and Lansner, A. (2012). [Nexa: A scalable neural simulator with integrated analysis] (http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/0954898X.2012.737087). Network: Computation in Neural Systems, 23(4): 254-271.
Download the latest version as a zip file or clone the repo:
$ git clone git@github.com:simonbe/nexaFor easy access on Windows, GitHub for Windows can be used.
Project files and Makefiles
Repo includes a Visual Studio 2010/2012 project file. To get MPI libraries and parallel debugging, Microsoft Compute Cluster Pack SDK or Microsoft HPC Pack are recomended. For other platforms (currently CRAY XE6 using the GNU compiler and BG/L and BG/P using the IBM compiler), Makefiles exist in the Resources/Makefiles directory.
Step-by-step network setup and simulation
Nexa is licensed under the GNU LGPL license.