ISRC Future Technology

Briefing:
Optical Computing
 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.
 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
Silicon Machines…

…versus Optical Computers

 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.
 Future Current
vs.
Benefits Limitations
• No conversion of data • Photonic circuit
• Faster that today’s accuracy
machines • Requirement of power
• Increased
computational power
• Optimized storage
• Increased bandwidth
• Super-fast database
searches
 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?
1. Participate in research activities (like ISRC
seminars )
2. Review the status of optical computing research
about every two years
3. Compare those advances with advances in the
micro-miniaturization of traditional processors
4. Try to identify those segments of the economy
that will benefit the soonest from advances in
optical computing