On-device learning at the edge enables low-latency, private personalization with improved long-term robustness and reduced maintenance costs. Yet, achieving scalable, low-power (LP) end-to-end on-chip learning, especially from real-world sequential data with a limited number of examples, is an open challenge. Indeed, accelerators supporting error backpropagation optimize for learning performance at the expense of inference efficiency, while simplified learning algorithms often fail to reach acceptable accuracy targets. In this work, we present Chameleon, leveraging three key contributions to solve these challenges: 1)aunified learning and inference architecture supports few-shot learning (FSL), continual learning (CL), and inference at only 0.5% area overhead to the inference logic; 2) long temporal dependencies are efficiently captured with temporal convolutional networks (TCNs), enabling the first demonstration of end-to-end on-chip FSL and CL on sequential data and inference on 16-kHz raw audio; and 3) a dual-mode, multiplier-free compute array allows either matching the power consumption of the state-of-the-art (SotA) inference-only keyword spotting (KWS) accelerators or enabling 4.3x higher peak GOPS. Fabricated in 40-nm CMOS, Chameleon sets new accuracy records on Omniglot for end-to-end on-chip FSL (96.8%, 5-way 1-shot and 98.8%, 5-way 5-shot) and CL (82.2% final accuracy for learning 250 classes with 10 shots), while maintaining an inference accuracy of 93.3% on the 12-class Google Speech Commands dataset at an extreme-edge power budget of 3.1 µW.

Neuromorphic computing shows promise for advancing computing efficiency and capabilities of AI applications using brain-inspired principles. However, the neuromorphic research field currently lacks standardized benchmarks, making it difficult to accurately measure technological advancements, compare performance with conventional methods, and identify promising future research directions. This article presents NeuroBench, a benchmark framework for neuromorphic algorithms and systems, which is collaboratively designed from an open community of researchers across industry and academia. NeuroBench introduces a common set of tools and systematic methodology for inclusive benchmark measurement, delivering an objective reference framework for quantifying neuromorphic approaches in both hardware-independent and hardware-dependent settings. For latest project updates, visit the project website (neurobench.ai).