Light Driven Computing

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    Light Driven Computing


    Posted: 06 May 2011
    The speed of light is as fast as it gets, and IBM researchers are exploiting that fact to give supercomputers a boost. They’ve made the smallest-yet silicon chips that use light to transmit information.
    Most parts of the chip resemble those found on any other commercial chip. The parts that process or transform information—in other words, the parts that do the actual computing—still deploy electrons moving through semiconductor gates. But the interconnects, the lines that shuttle information between different areas within a chip, are drastically different. Instead of shuttling electrons, which can slow down significantly when the interconnects heat up, they shuttle light. That’s because light is easy to contain and loses less information as it travels. The researchers hope that this quick communication will make possible the first exascale computers—that is, computers that can perform a billion billion computations per second, 1,000 times as fast as today’s speediest systems.
    To read more please see this link:
    How It Works: The Light-Driven Computer | Popular Science
    linnemeyerhere's Avatar Posted By: linnemeyerhere
    06 May 2011



  1. Posts : 342
    Windows 7
       #1

    I'm surprised this wasn't developed sooner with fiber optics being around for some time......or has it?
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  2. Posts : 11,424
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64
    Thread Starter
       #2

    mr pc,
    Not sure but it seems that the technologies at this microscopic level are relatively new.
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  3. Posts : 3,322
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
       #3

    There was another thread here about photonic/quantum computing Quantum Computing Chip Built.

    Very interesting though. Will be amazing once it's developed properly.
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  4. Posts : 175
    windows 7 32
       #4

    So, will we be able to overclock it?
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  5. Posts : 11,424
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Yes I see a market for sending more juice to the lasers.....lol to speed up the light ??
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  6. Posts : 12,177
    Windows 7 Ult x64 - SP1/ Windows 8 Pro x64
       #6

    Speed up the light

    The new Motto: Come to the light
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  7. Posts : 11,424
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64
    Thread Starter
       #7

    So what if we bend some rules of physics as we know them. Rules as they say are meant to be broken.
    Last edited by linnemeyerhere; 11 May 2011 at 11:57.
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  8. Posts : 3,322
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
       #8

    You'd just be sending all your data in to the future in the process.
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  9. Posts : 6,885
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64, Mint 9
       #9

    But the dark side has cookies...

    ~Lordbob
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