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ISRC Future Technology Briefing:Optical Computing
What is the Optical Computing Buzz About?
Consider Email
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
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.
No conversion of data
Faster that today’s machines
Increased computational power
Optimized storage
Increased bandwidth
Super-fast database searches
Photonic circuit accuracy
Requirement of power
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.
What’s 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
What Should Your Organization Do?
Participate in research activities (like ISRC seminar )
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