Optical Computing:

What is Optical Computing?

• Uses photons (light particle) from lasers or diodes for computation
• Previously, we have used electrons (electricity) for computation

The Nitty-Gritty

• At its core, like traditional electronic computing, optical computing processes data on the principle of logic gates
• The use of optical logic gates is known as "photonic logic"

Problems with Optical Computing

• Computation is a nonlinear process
• Light, an electromagnetic wave, can only interact with another electromagnetic wave in the presence of electrons
• This means that an optical computation systems requires more power and space than transistor-based electronic-computing

Optalysys Optical Computing

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2yQ9xFshuc
• This video by optical computing researcher Optalysys explains the technology