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."

Comments

Re:100 Cores?

[xirtap]

Isn't that like saying "640KB ought to be enough for anyone"?

Re:100 Cores?

[be-fan]

I can't speak for Windows or OS X, but Linux's SMP implementation locks a process to the CPU it first runs on unless it absolutely has to move it to distribute load evenly.

Re:100 Cores?

[MSTCrow5429]

Aside from the mythical status of that statement, no. The logistical difficulties in threading that many cores and using them efficiently, especially in personal computing, is extreme. I have no doubt that at some point this will be done, but a number of breakthroughs in computer science and a paradigm shift in programming techniques is required first.