HIGH-SPEED LOW-ENERGY DIGITAL OPTICAL PROCESSORS

We describe the effort to design and construct a high-speed low-energy digital optical processor that is currently in progress at Opti- Comp Corporation. The reasons for believing that it is possible to build optical processors that have lower switch energies than are possible with electronic processors are discussed. Two systems, a second-generation digital optical computer (DOC II) and a high-performance optoelectronic computer (HPOC), which are under development at OptiComp, are described. Both systems are based on high optical fan-out emitters and high optical fan-in detectors. Finally, potential practical applications for the high-performance optoelectronic computer are discussed.

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