Optical computing: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:29, 24 September 2023

Revision as of 12:47, 25 October 2023

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Most research projects focus on replacing current computer components with optical equivalents, resulting in an optical [[digital computer]] system processing [[binary data]]. This approach appears to offer the best short-term prospects for commercial optical computing, since optical components could be integrated into traditional computers to produce an optical-electronic hybrid. However, [[optoelectronic]] devices consume 30% of their energy converting electronic energy into photons and back; this conversion also slows the transmission of messages. All-optical computers eliminate the need for optical-electrical-optical (OEO) conversions, thus reducing electrical [[power consumption]].<ref>{{cite book |first=D.D. |last=Nolte |title=Mind at Light Speed: A New Kind of Intelligence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9lB-REWP5EC&pg=PA34 |date=2001 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-7432-0501-6 |page=34}}</ref>

Application-specific devices, such as [[synthetic-aperture radar]] (SAR) and [[optical correlator]]s, have been designed to use the principles of optical computing. Correlators can be used, for example, to detect and track objects,<ref>{{cite book |title=Optical Computing: A Survey for Computer Scientists |chapter=Chapter 3: Optical Image and Signal Processing |last=Feitelson |first=Dror G. |date=1988 |publisher=MIT Press |___location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-262-06112-4 }}</ref> and to classify serial time-___domain optical data.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kim |first1=S. K. |last2=Goda |first2=K.|last3=Fard |first3=A. M. |last4=Jalali |first4=B.|title= Optical time-___domain analog pattern correlator for high-speed real-time image recognition |journal=Optics Letters |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=220–2 |date=2011 |doi= 10.1364/ol.36.000220|pmid=21263506 |bibcode=2011OptL...36..220K |s2cid=15492810 |url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/a32f6fd548f77c47c869d39a84c6a0015c48a562 }}</ref>

==Optical components for binary digital computer==

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===Masking optical beams===

The [[travelling salesman problem]] has been solved by Shaked ''et al'' (2007)<ref>{{cite journal| author= NT Shaked, S Messika, S Dolev, J Rosen |title=Optical solution for bounded NP-complete problems|journal= Applied Optics|pages=711–724|volume=46|issue=5|date=2007|doi=10.1364/AO.46.000711|pmid=17279159|bibcode=2007ApOpt..46..711S|s2cid=17440025|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/074018c5930b0bc0e9b2c826488048415180ed05}}</ref> by using an optical approach. All possible TSP paths have been generated and stored in a binary matrix which was multiplied with another gray-scale vector containing the distances between cities. The multiplication is performed optically by using an optical correlator.

===Optical Fourier co-processors===