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Researchers Develop Photonic Processors
TheCybernator writes to mention a New Scientist story about scientists who are developing a light-based processor by actually storing and delaying photons. These 'optical buffers' may one day be used to make super-fast microchips based on light instead of electrons. From the article: "A decade from now ... there [may] be not seven cores but hundreds on a chip ... Connecting these cores using light could solve this problem. Until now, the lack of optical buffers has been a key roadblock to these kinds of light connections. The way information is transmitted means that buffers must hold packets of data while a router decides where they are to be sent. Buffers are also needed to delay optical pulses - so they do not collide at switching points - and to synchronise streams of data coming from different places."
Something like 20 years ago, I heard about a device that used interference in a crystal with the upshot that the presence of light on one facet of a crystal determined whether light could go through the crystal along another path. This was supposed to form the basis for entirely-optical logic devices. Does this ring a bell? Anyone?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
The world market for photonic computers will only be five or six.