Neuron core with time-embedded floating point arithmetic

A neuron core unit comprising:

• a timer that indicates a current time of a neuron core;
• a controller configured to, upon receipt of an input synaptic event, convert a membrane potential value at the current time indicated by the timer into a membrane potential value at a reference time for an input synaptic event and to output an output spike when a membrane potential value at the reference time exceeds a certain threshold value;
• and
• a memory that includes a neural state variable;
• wherein the controller, to convert the membrane potential value at the current time indicated by the timer into the membrane potential value at the reference time and to output the output spike,
• represents the membrane potential value at the current time indicated by the timer in a floating-point format including time information, the time information being represented as a time bias derived from the timer and reflected in the floating-point format by an integer addition operation,
• accesses the memory and scans neural state variables corresponding to the membrane potential value at the current time indicated by the timer only when the timer is updated to “0” or in response to an input event.