Carver Mead Writes the First Book on Neuromorphic Computing

In 1984 professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Caltech Carver Mead published Analog VLSI and Neural Systems. This was first book on neuromorphic engineering or neuromorphic computing—a concept developed by Mead, that involves 

"... the use of very-large-scale integration (VLSI) systems containing electronic analog circuits to mimic neuro-biological architectures present in the nervous system. In recent times the term neuromorphic has been used to describe analog, digital, and mixed-mode analog/digital VLSI and software systems that implement models of neural systems (for perception, motor control, or multisensory integration).

"A key aspect of neuromorphic engineering is understanding how the morphology of individual neurons, circuits and overall architectures creates desirable computations, affects how information is represented, influences robustness to damage, incorporates learning and development, adapts to local change (plasticity), and facilitates evolutionary change, " Wikipedia article on Neuromorphic engineering, accessed 01-01-2014.)