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Optical Computing

This document provides an overview of optical computing, including its history, key advantages over electronic computing, and some of the major optical components used. Optical computing uses light rather than electricity to perform computations and has advantages like speed, parallel processing capabilities, and lack of interference between crossing light beams. While research in optical computing boomed in the 1980s, materials limitations hampered progress. Now, with renewed interest in high performance computing, optical computing research is advancing again using components like VCSEL lasers, smart pixels, and photonic switches. However, challenges remain around developing room-temperature materials and reducing costs before optical computing can be commercially viable.

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rakeshranjanlal
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397 views

Optical Computing

This document provides an overview of optical computing, including its history, key advantages over electronic computing, and some of the major optical components used. Optical computing uses light rather than electricity to perform computations and has advantages like speed, parallel processing capabilities, and lack of interference between crossing light beams. While research in optical computing boomed in the 1980s, materials limitations hampered progress. Now, with renewed interest in high performance computing, optical computing research is advancing again using components like VCSEL lasers, smart pixels, and photonic switches. However, challenges remain around developing room-temperature materials and reducing costs before optical computing can be commercially viable.

Uploaded by

rakeshranjanlal
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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WELCOME

TO THE WORLD OF
OPTICAL
COMPUTING
OPTICAL COMPUTING
Introduction
• With the growth of computing technology the need of high performance
computers (HPC) has significantly increased.

• Optical computing was a hot research area in 1980’s.But the work tapered off
due to materials limitations.

• Using light, instead of electric power, for performing computations.


• This choice is motivated by several features that light has:

• • It is very fast. Actually the fastest thing that we know, and


speed is exactly what we need for our computers.
• It can be easily manipulated (divided, transported, delayed,
split, etc).
• It is very well suited for parallelization.
Optical computing technology is, in general, developing in two directions.
•
• One approach is to build computers that have the same architecture as present
day computers but using optics that is Electro optical hybrids.

• Another approach is to generate a completely new kind of computer, which can


perform all functional operations in optical mode.
Why we Use Optics for
Computing?
• So to make computers faster, their components must be smaller and
there by decrease the distance between them.
• This has resulted in the development of very large scale integration
(VLSI) technology

• But they are limited not only by the speed of electrons in matter but
also by the increasing density of interconnections necessary to link the
electronic gates on microchips.
• One of the theoretical limits on how fast a computer can function is
given by Einstein’s principle that signal cannot propagate faster than
speed of light.

• The optical computing comes as a solution of miniaturization problem.


Features of optical computing
• Optical interconnections and optical integrated circuits have
several advantageous over their electronic counterparts.

• And free from electrical short circuits.

• Optical data processing can perform several operations in


parallel much faster and easier than electrons.

• They are compact, lightweight, and inexpensive to


Manufacture

• Computing is that optical data processing can be done much


easier and less expensive

• Optics has a higher bandwidth capacity over electronics,


which enables more information to be carried
OPTICAL COMPUTER
 An optical computer (also called a photonic computer)
is a device thatuses the PHOTONS in visible light or
infrared ( IR ) beams,rather than electric current, to
perform digital computations.

 An optical computer, besides being much faster than


an electronic one, might also be smaller.

 Bright flashes of laser light can be sent hundreds of


miles along fine strands of specially made glass or
plastic called OPTICAL FIBERS.

 Instead of transistors, such a computer will have


TRANSPHASORS
OPTICAL COMPUTER
 These are switches that are activated by beams of light rather than by
pulses of electricity.

 And unlike transistors, transphasors can be built to handle several


incoming signals at once.

 Beams of light can crisscross and overlap without becoming mixed up,
whereas crossed electric currents would get hopelessly confused.

 Also, the arrangement of connections and switches would not have to be


flat, as in an electronic computer. It could be placed in any direction in
space, allowing totally new designs in information processing.
Optic Fiber cables made of glass or plastic
Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser
Optic Interconnections Of Circuit Boards
Spatial Light Modulators :
Smart Pixel Technology :
WDM :
Optical AND Gate :
Optical NAND Gate :
OPTICAL DISK’S WORKING :
HOLOGRAPHIC MEMORY’S WORKING :
Holographic Memory Search Work :
Silicon Machines…

…versus Optical
Computers
SOME KEY OPTICAL COMPONENTS FOR
COMPUTING

 The major components are:

VCSEL (VERTICAL CAVITY SURFACE EMITTING LASER)

 VCSEL (pronounced ‘vixel’) is a semiconductor vertical cavity surface


emitting laser diode that emits light in a cylindrical beam vertically from
the surface of a fabricated wafer
 There are two special semiconductor materials sandwiching an active
layer where all the action takes place.
 But rather than reflective ends, in a VCSEL there are several layers of
partially reflective mirrors above and below the active layer. Layers of
semiconductors with differing compositions create these mirrors, and
each mirror reflects a narrow range of wavelengths back in to the
cavity in order to cause light emission at just one wavelength.
SMART PIXEL TECHNOLOGY

• Smart pixel technology is a relatively new approach to integrating


electronic circuitry and optoelectronic devices in a common framework.

• Here, the electronic circuitry provides complex functionality and


programmability.

• While the optoelectronic devices provide high-speed switching and


compatibility with existing optical media.

• Arrays of these smart pixels leverage the parallelism of optics for


interconnections as well as computation. A smart pixel device, a light
emitting diode under the control of a field effect transistor can now be
made entirely out of organic materials on the same substrate for the first
time. In general, the benefit of organic over conventional semiconductor
electronics is that they should lead to cheaper, lighter, circuitry that can
be printed rather than etched.
ADVANCES IN PHOTONIC SWITCHES:

 Logic gates are the building blocks of any digital


system. An optical logic gate is a switch that controls
one light beam by another; it is ON when the device
transmits light and it is OFF when it blocks the light.
 Germanium LASER breakthrough brings optical
computer closer as it can be operated at room
temperature, giving power solutions.
MERITS
• Optical computing is at least 1000 to 100000 times faster than today’s silicon machines.
• Optical storage will provide an extremely optimized way to store data, with space
requirements far lesser than today’s silicon chips.
• Super fast searches through databases.
• No short circuits, light beam can cross each other without interfering with each other’s
data.
• Higher performance
• Higher parallelism
• Less heat is released
• Less noise
• More Flexible in layout
• Less loss in communication
DRAWBACKS
• Today’s materials require much high power to work in
consumer products, coming up with the right materials
may take five years or more.

• Optical computing using a coherent source is simple to


compute and understand, but it has many drawbacks
like any imperfections or dust on the optical
components will create unwanted interference pattern
due to scattering effects.

• Optical components and their production is still


expensive

• New expensive high-tech factories have to be built


FUTURE TRENDS
• The Ministry of Information Technology has initiated a photonic
development program. Under this program some funded
projects are continuing in fiber optic high-speed network
systems. Research is going on for developing new laser diodes,
photo detectors, and nonlinear material studies for faster
switches.
CONCLUSION
 Research in optical computing has opened up new possibilities in several
fields related to high performance computing, high-speed
communications. To design algorithms that execute applications faster
,the specific properties of optics must be considered, such as their ability
to exploit massive parallelism, and global interconnections. As
optoelectronic and smart pixel devices mature, software development will
have a major impact in the future and the ground rules for the computing
may have to be rewritten.
THANK YOU..
TO OUR
CO-ORDINATORS
THANK YOU..
INTERNET

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