CONTENT

INTRODUCTION
With the growth of computing technology the need of high performance computers (HPC) has significantly increased. Optics has been used in computing for a number of years but the main emphasis has been and continues to be to link portions of computers, for communications, or more intrinsically in devices that have some optical application or component (optical pattern recognition etc.)

WHY WE NEED OPTICAL COMPUTERS?

Rapid growth of the Internet Network speeds currently limited by electronic circuits Terabit speeds are required Traditional silicon circuits have a physical limit

WHAT IS THE OPTICAL COMPUTING?

Consider E-mail

Electronic To Photonic Converter .txt format Fiber optic cables

Optical Computers perform computations, operate, store and transmit data using only light.

COMPONENTS FOR COMPUTING

VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) SPT (Smart Pixel Technology) WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing)

VCSEL & PHOTODIODE

SMART PIXEL TECHNOLOGY

Smart pixel technology is a relatively new approach to integrating electronic circuitry and optoelectronic devices in a common framework. The purpose is to leverage the advantages of each individual technology and provide improved performance for specific applications. Here, the electronic circuitry provides complex functionality and programmability while the optoelectronic devices provide high-speed switching and compatibility with existing optical media.
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DEVICES FOR OPTICAL COMPUTING

Logic gates :
Logic gates are implemented optically by controlling the population inversion that occurs to produce lasing. A controlling laser is used to control the population inversion thus causing switching to occur.

Holographic truth table:

Destructive interference with light to be emitted or not is based on phase relationship.

Logic based on gratings:

 1 is represented by vertical grating causing light  0 is represented by horizontal grating causing 9

TRADITIONAL INTERCONNECTIONS

INTERCONNECTIONS IN OPTICAL COMPUTING

Fiber optic cables and optical transceivers are widely used. Applications of optical communications like fiber channel and computer networking are already being used. Chip to Chip and On-Chip interconnection possibilities are still being examined.

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APPLICATION
High speed communications Process satellite data. Storage area Network Optical crossbar interconnects are used in a synchronous transfer modes and shared memory multiprocessor systems.

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ADVANTAGES
Small size High density High speed It is at least 1000 to100000 times faster than todays silicon machines Low heating of junctions Optical computer removes the bottleneck in the present day computers No short circuits
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FUTURE TRENDS

requires high power to work in consumer products Creates unwanted interference pattern due to scattering effects It cannot store phase information
It

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 , software development will have a major impact in the future and the ground rules for the computing may have to be rewritten.

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