CARLsim is an efficient, easy-to-use, GPU-accelerated library for simulating large-scale spiking neural network (SNN) models with a high degree of biological detail. CARLsim allows execution of networks of Izhikevich spiking neurons with realistic synaptic dynamics on both generic x86 CPUs and standard off-the-shelf GPUs. The simulator provides a PyNN-like programming interface in C/C++, which allows for details and parameters to be specified at the synapse, neuron, and network level.

New features in CARLsim 4 include:

• TODO
• Multi-GPU support
• Hybrid mode
• etc.

Detailed instructions for installing the latest stable release of CARLsim on Mac OS X / Linux / Windows can be found in our User Guide.

In brief (OS X/Linux):

1. Fork CARLsim 4 by clicking on the Fork box in the top-right corner.

2. Clone the repo, where YourUsername is your actual GitHub user name:

   $ git clone --recursive https://github.com/YourUsername/CARLsim4
   $ cd CARLsim4
   

   Note the --recursive option: It will make sure Google Test gets installed.

3. Choose between stable release and latest development version:

   • For the stable release, use the stable branch:

     $ git checkout stable
     

   • For the latest development branch, you are already on the right branch (master).

4. Choose the installation directory: By default, the CARLsim library lives in /usr/local/lib, and CARLsim include files live in /usr/local/include/carlsim. You can overwrite these by exporting an evironment variable called CARLSIM4_INSTALL_DIR:

   $ export CARLSIM4_INSTALL_DIR=/path/to/your/preferred/dir
   

5. Make and install:

   $ make -j4
   $ sudo -E make install
   

   Note the -E flag, which will cause sudo to remember the CARLSIM4_INSTALL_DIR.

6. In order to make sure the installation was successful, you can run the regression suite:

   $ make test
   $ ./carlsim/test/carlsim_tests
   

7. Start your own project! The "Hello World" project is a goot starting point for this. Make sure it runs:

   $ cd projects/hello_world
   $ make
   $ ./hello_world
   

   You can easily create your own project based on this template using the init.sh script:

   $ cd projects
   $ ./init.sh project_name
   

   where project_name is the name of your new project. The script will copy all files from hello_world/ to project_name/, make all required file changes to compile the new project, and add all new files to git.

On Windows 7/10: Simply download the code and open/run the "Hello World" project file projects\hello_world\hello_world.vcxproj.

CARLsim 4 comes with the following requirements:

• (Windows) Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 or higher.
• (optional) CUDA Toolkit 6.0 or higher. For platform-specific CUDA installation instructions, please navigate to the NVIDIA CUDA Zone. This is only required if you want to run CARLsim in GPU_MODE. Make sure to install the CUDA samples, too, as CARLsim relies on the file helper_cuda.h.
• (optional) A GPU with compute capability 2.0 or higher. To find the compute capability of your device please refer to the CUDA article on Wikipedia. This is only required if you want to run CARLsim in GPU_MODE.
• (optional) MATLAB R2014a or higher. This is only required if you want to use the Offline Analysis Toolbox (OAT).

As of CARLsim 3.1 it is no longer necessary to have the CUDA framework installed. However, CARLsim development will continue to focus on the GPU implementation.

The current release has been tested on the following platforms:

• Windows 10
• Ubuntu 16.04