Bounded substrate comparison

Simulation and physical substrate

What transfers from a model evaluated in software to a device or living implementation?

specified numerical model

Simulation

Valid claim: Produces these outputs under these equations, precision, and inputs.

measured device or living system

Physical substrate

Valid claim: Produces these observations under these material conditions and interfaces.

Comparable axes

  • Input-output task
  • Model-to-measurement discrepancy
  • Latency and resource boundary

Non-equivalences

  • Simulated state is not measured physical state.
  • A device can depart from its nominal model.

Comparison procedure

  1. 1.Version equations and integration.
  2. 2.Calibrate interface.
  3. 3.Report transfer error.

Prohibited inference

Do not describe a simulated capability as a hardware or biological demonstration, and do not assume physical implementation preserves model accuracy, timing, or stability.

Connected concepts and sources

Hardware-software co-designBioelectronic interfaces
  1. NeuroBench: Advancing Neuromorphic Computing Through Collaborative, Fair and Representative Benchmarking · National Institute of Standards and Technology
  2. A practical guide to culturing and recording from neuronal networks using microelectrode arrays · Journal of Visualized Experiments