We don't even have a diagram for a logic gate (or at least none are presented in the article)
All-optical logic gates have been made, but I agree that we are quite a long way from optical computing.
The discussion of Moore's Law and switching speed is indirectly related to slow-light. Slow-light is useful for memory, not computation. People are still exploring options for optical RAM. A suitably cheap and easy-to-manufacture option has yet to be found.
I think these transistors, if found to be manufacturable, will probably be used in communications not digital logic.
No probably about it. Communications applications are by far and away the heaviest driving factor in (read: give the most money to) THz and ultra-high speed data processing. Demand for high-speed internet is rising as more people are subscribing and applications such as HDTV and VOIP are using more bandwidth. Of course, in order to keep up with these demands, routers need to be able to handle more and more information.
Of course, even if it is infeasible and improbable for us to see this technology in our processors (as mentioned in many other posts), communication isn't the only use for THz architecture. THz emitters and detectors could be used for a lot of detection and exploration purposes, e.g. molecular compositions, plasma observation, and molecular astronomy.
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All-optical logic gates have been made, but I agree that we are quite a long way from optical computing.
The discussion of Moore's Law and switching speed is indirectly related to slow-light. Slow-light is useful for memory, not computation. People are still exploring options for optical RAM. A suitably cheap and easy-to-manufacture option has yet to be found.
I think these transistors, if found to be manufacturable, will probably be used in communications not digital logic. No probably about it. Communications applications are by far and away the heaviest driving factor in (read: give the most money to) THz and ultra-high speed data processing. Demand for high-speed internet is rising as more people are subscribing and applications such as HDTV and VOIP are using more bandwidth. Of course, in order to keep up with these demands, routers need to be able to handle more and more information. Of course, even if it is infeasible and improbable for us to see this technology in our processors (as mentioned in many other posts), communication isn't the only use for THz architecture. THz emitters and detectors could be used for a lot of detection and exploration purposes, e.g. molecular compositions, plasma observation, and molecular astronomy.