ISRC Future Technology Briefing: Optical Computing

1
ISRC Future Technology BriefingOptical Computing
2
What is the Optical Computing Buzz About?

• Consider Email

Electronic To Photonic Converter
.txt format
Fiber optic cables
Optical Computers perform computations, operate,
store and transmit data using only light.
3
Why Do We Need Optical Computers?

• Rapid growth of the Internet
• Network speeds currently limited by electronic
  circuits
• Terabit speeds are required
• Traditional silicon circuits have a physical limit

4
Silicon Machines
versus Optical Computers
5
How Does It Work?

• Photonic circuits
• Organic compounds
• No short-circuiting possible
• No heat dissipation
• Speed of light in photonic circuits will be close
  to speed of light in vacuum
• Light beams can travel in parallel
• They can transfer data in parallel.

6
Future Benefits
Current Limitations
vs.

• No conversion of data
• Faster that todays machines
• Increased computational power
• Optimized storage
• Increased bandwidth
• Super-fast database searches

• Photonic circuit accuracy
• Requirement of power

7
What Is the Projected Timeline?

• Still some time in the future
• On our desktops in 15 years
• Now researchers have made progress
• Light can be trapped for long enough to store
  data
• Advanced optical CD-ROMs (Write/Read/Erase)
• In the near term, optical computers will most
  likely be hybrid optical/electronic systems.

8
Whats Beyond the Optical Limit?

• Quantum computing
• Allows particles to be in more than one state at
  a time
• Each particle in a quantum computer to hold more
  than one bit of information.
• A quantum computer is, thus far, only a
  hypothetical machine
• Expected between 2030 and 2050

9
What Should Your Organization Do?

• Participate in research activities (like ISRC
  seminars ?)
• Review the status of optical computing research
  about every two years
• Compare those advances with advances in the
  micro-miniaturization of traditional processors
• Try to identify those segments of the economy
  that will benefit the soonest from advances in
  optical computing