Installation#

BrainPy is designed to run cross platforms, including Windows, GNU/Linux, and OSX. It only relies on Python libraries.

Installation with pip#

You can install BrainPy from the pypi. To do so, use:

pip install brainpy

To update the BrainPy version, you can use

pip install -U brainpy

If you want to install the pre-release version (the latest development version) of BrainPy, you can use:

pip install --pre brainpy

Installation from source#

If you decide not to use pip, you can install BrainPy from GitHub, or OpenI.

To do so, use:

pip install git+https://github.com/PKU-NIP-Lab/BrainPy

# or

pip install git+https://git.openi.org.cn/OpenI/BrainPy

Dependency 1: NumPy#

In order to make BrainPy work normally, users should install several dependent Python packages.

The basic function of BrainPy only relies on NumPy, which is very easy to install through pip or conda:

pip install numpy

# or

conda install numpy

Dependency 2: JAX#

BrainPy relies on JAX. JAX is a high-performance JIT compiler which enables users to run Python code on CPU, GPU, and TPU devices. Core functionalities of BrainPy (>=2.0.0) have been migrated to the JAX backend.

Linux & MacOS#

Currently, JAX supports Linux (Ubuntu 16.04 or later) and macOS (10.12 or later) platforms. The provided binary releases of jax and jaxlib for Linux and macOS systems are available at

If you want to install a CPU-only version of jax and jaxlib, you can run

pip install --upgrade "jax[cpu]" -f https://storage.googleapis.com/jax-releases/jax_releases.html

If you want to install JAX with both CPU and NVidia GPU support, you must first install CUDA and CuDNN, if they have not already been installed. Next, run

pip install --upgrade "jax[cuda]" -f https://storage.googleapis.com/jax-releases/jax_cuda_releases.html

Alternatively, you can download the preferred release “.whl” file for jaxlib from the above release links, and install it via pip:

pip install xxx-0.3.14-xxx.whl

pip install jax==0.3.14

Note

Note that the versions of jaxlib and jax should be consistent.

For example, if you are using jax==0.3.14, you would better install jax==0.3.14.

Windows#

For Windows users, jax and jaxlib can be installed from the community supports. Specifically, you can install jax and jaxlib through:

pip install "jax[cpu]" -f https://whls.blob.core.windows.net/unstable/index.html

If you are using GPU, you can install GPU-versioned wheels through:

pip install "jax[cuda111]" -f https://whls.blob.core.windows.net/unstable/index.html

Alternatively, you can manually install you favourite version of jax and jaxlib by downloading binary releases of JAX for Windows from https://whls.blob.core.windows.net/unstable/index.html . Then install it via pip:

pip install xxx-0.3.14-xxx.whl

pip install jax==0.3.14

WSL#

Moreover, for Windows 10+ system, we recommend using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The installation guide can be found in WSL Installation Guide for Windows 10/11. Then, you can install JAX in WSL just like the installation step in Linux/MacOs.

Dependency 3: brainpylib#

Many customized operators in BrainPy are implemented in brainpylib. brainpylib can also be installed through pypi.

pip install brainpylib

For GPU operators, you should compile brainpylib from source. The details please see Compile GPU operators in brainpylib.

Other Dependency#

In order to get full supports of BrainPy, we recommend you install the following packages:

  • Numba: needed in some NumPy-based computations

pip install numba

# or

conda install numba

  • matplotlib: required in some visualization functions, but now it is recommended that users explicitly import matplotlib for visualization

pip install matplotlib

# or

conda install matplotlib