OPTICAL COMPUTERS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 HISTORY
Computers have enhanced human life to a great extent. The speed of conventional computers is achieved by miniaturizing electronic components to a very small micron-size scale so that those electrons need to travel only very short distances within a very short time. The goal of improving on computer speed has resulted in the development of the Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) technology with smaller device dimensions and greater complexity. Last year, the smallest-todate dimensions of VLSI reached 0.08 urn by researchers at Lucent Technology. Whereas VLSI technology has revolutionized the electronics industry and established the 20th century as the computer age, increasing usage of the Internet demands better accommodation of a 10 to 15 percent per month growth rate. Additionally, our daily lives demand solutions to increasingly sophisticated and complex problems, which requires more speed and better performance of computers. For these reasons, it is unfortunate that VLSI technology is approaching its fundamental limits in the sub-micron miniaturization process. It is now possible to fit up to 300 million transistors on a single silicon chip. It is also estimated that the number of transistor switches that can be put onto a chip doubles every 18 months. Further miniaturization of lithography introduces several problems such as dielectric breakdown, hot carriers, and short channel effects. All of these factors combine to seriously degrade device reliability. Even if developing

technology succeeded in temporarily overcoming these physical problems, we will continue to face them as long as increasing demands for higher integration continues. Therefore, a dramatic solution to the problem is needed, and unless we gear our thoughts toward a totally different pathway, we will not be able to further improve our computer performance for the future. Today's computers use the movement of electrons in-and-out of transistors to do logic.The speed of the present computers has now become a pressing problem as electronic circuits reach their miniaturization limit. The rapid growth of the Internet, expanding at almost 15% per month, demands faster speeds and larger bandwidths than

electronic circuits can provide. Electronic switching limits network speeds to about 50 Gigabits per second

1.2 NEED FOR OPTICAL COMPUTERS

Optical technologies research group, states that Terabit speeds (1 Terabit, abbreviated "Tb", is 1012, or 1 trillion bits) are needed to accommodate the growth rate of the Internet and the increasing demand for bandwidth-intensive data streams. Optical data processing can perform several operations simultaneously (in parallel) much faster and easier than electronics. This "parallelism" when associated with fast switching speeds would result in staggering computational power. An electric current flows at only about 10 percent of the speed of light. This limits the rate at which data can be exchanged over long distances, and is one of the factors that led to the evolution of optical fiber. By applying some of the advantages of visible and/or IR networks at the device and component scale, a computer might someday be developed that can perform operations 10 or more times faster than a conventional electronic computer.

1.3 LITERATURE SURVEY

In this survey we consider optical computers that encode data using images and compute transforming such images. We give an overview of a number of such optical computing architectures, including descriptions of the type of hardware commonly used in optical computing,as well as some of the computational eciencies of optical devices. We go on to discuss opticalcomputing from the point of view of computational complexity theory, with the aim of puttingsome old, and some very recent, results in context. Finally, we focus on a particular opticalmodel of computation called the continuous space machine. We describe some results for thismodel including characterisations in terms of well-known complexity classes.

1.4 ORGANISATION OF THESIS

This thesis consists of six chapters. chapter 1 discuss about overview of seminar literature survey , organization of thesis.,history and need for optical computer. Chapter 2 contains construction and types of optical computer. Chapter 3 includes the explanation for block diagram Chapter 4 includes merits and demerits

Chapter 5 includes applications. Chapter 6 includes conclusion and future scope

CHAPTER 2 CONSTRUCTION AND TYPES OF OPTICAL COMPUTERS

2.1 CONSTRUCTION
The fundamental building block of modern electronic computers is the transistor. To replace electronic components with optical ones, an equivalent "optical transistor" is required. This is achieved using materials with a non-linear refractive index. In particular, materials exist where the intensity of incoming light affects the intensity of the light transmitted through the material in a similar manner to the voltage response of an electronic transistor. This "optical transistor" effect is used to create logic gates, which in turn are assembled into the higher-level components of the computer's CPU.

2.2 TYPES OF OPTICAL COMPUTERS

There are two different types of optical computers. (1)Electro-Optical Hybrid computers (2)Pure Optical computers

2.2.1 ELECTRO-OPTICAL HYBRID COMPUTERS

Electro-optical hybrid computers are the computers which use optical fibers to read the data and electric parts to direct data from the processor. Here instead of voltage packets unlike electronic computers, uses light pulses to send information from one location to other. Optical Processors in this type change the information from binary code to light pulses using lasers. The processed Information is then detected and decoded electronically back into binary code.

2.2.2 PURE OPTICAL COMPUTERS

Pure optical computers use multiple frequencies of light for the operations. Information in these computers is sent throughout computer as light waves and packets. Electrons are not involved here. Everything is done using photons so no electron based
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systems are involved. These computers dont require the conversion of data from binary to optical. This leads to the increase in speed of transaction and finally increasing performance of the system.

CHAPTER 3 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF AN OPTICAL COMPUTER

Fig 3.1 Block diagram of optical computer

3.1 EXPLANATION OF EACH BLOCK

The various Optical Computer Hardware components are
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Optical Transistor Optical Gate and Switch Holographic Memory Input-Output Devices Optical Networking Optical processor

3.1.1 OPTICAL TRANSISTORS

Optical transistors are based on the fabry-perot interferometer. In electronic computers everything is done using 0s and 1s (binary code) which forms the basic for operations. In optical transistors this binary code is generated using the concept of

interference of light. The constructive interference which gives high intensity output can be used as 1 and destructive interference output as 0.

Fig 3.2 Constructive interference

Fig 3.3 Destructive interference

3.1.2 OPTICAL LOGIC GATE

Logic gates are the basic components of a digital system. An optical logic gate is a switch that controls one light beam with another. It is "on" when the device transmits light, and "off" when it blocks the light. The universal gate of the electronic system is the NAND gate by using which all other gates can be created. The AND gate implemented using the optical system is given below

Fig 3.4 Optical logic gate

3.1.3 INPUT OUTPUT DEVICES

The optical computer hardware requires optical input and optical output devices. Many of the input output devices of optical computer are identical or similar to those t h a t w e s e e e v e n n o w . T h e v a r i o u s o p t i c a l b a s e d e l e c t r o n i c d e v i c e s c a n b e m a d e optically and can do parallel processing much faster than the current electronic or opto-electronic devices

. INPUT DEVICES OPTICAL MOUSE

An optical mouse uses a light-emitting diode and photodiodes to detect movement relative to the underlying surface. Modern surface-

independent optical mice work by using an optoelectronic sensor to take successive pictures of the surface on which the mouse operates. In optical mouse, the optoelectronic
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sensor and circuitry can be replaced with the all optical circuitry. Inside each optical mouse is a small camera that takes more than a thousand snapshot pictures every second. A small LED (light-emitting diode) provides light underneath the mouse, helping to highlights light differences in the surface underneath the mouse. Those differences are reflected back into the camera, where digital processing is used to compare the pictures and determine the speed and direction of movement. The laser mouse uses an infrared laser diode instead of an LED to illuminate the surface beneath their sensor.

OPTICAL KEYBOARD An optical keyboard is otherwise known as a virtual keyboard. The virtual keyboard has a virtual display of the keyboard using lasers. It can be projected and touched on any surface. The keyboard watches finger movements and translates them into keystrokes in the device. A laser or beamer projects visible virtual keyboard onto level surface. A sensor or camera in the projector picks up finger movements. The camera associated with the detector detects co-ordinates and determine actions or characters to be generated. A direction technology based on an optical recognition mechanism enables the user to tap on the projected key images ,while producing real tapping sounds .All mechanical input units can be replaced by such virtual devices, optimized for the current application and for the user's physiology maintaining speed, simplicity and un ambiguity of manual data input. In this virtual keyboard also, the mechanical parts have become purely optical but the electronic parts remain the same or has become opto-electronic circuits. In future, this electronic circuitry will be replaced by Optical Computers 3.1.4 HOLOGRAPHIC MEMORY Memory storage in an optical computer has been all -optical with the invention of Holographic memory. If there wasnt a typical optical type of memory, the data rates of the electronic memory would have caused a relatively high delay with the optical data rates which causes the optical computer a non worthier device.

HOLOGRAPHIC DATA STORAGE HDS is a potential replacement technology in the area of high-capacity data storage currently dominated by magnetic and conventional optical data storage. It is essentially a 3-D memory storage device. Magnetic and optical data storage devices rely on individual bits being stored as distinct magnetic or optical changes on the surface of the recording medium. Holographic data storage over comes this limitation by recording information throughout the volume of the medium and is capable of recording multiple images in the same area utilizing l i g h t a t d i f f e r e n t angles. Additionally, whereas magnetic and optical data storage records information a b i t a t a time in a linear fashion, holographic storage is capable of

r e c o r d i n g a n d reading millions of bits in parallel, enabling data transfer rates greater than those attained by optical storage. Holographic memory offers the possibility of stori ng1terabyte (TB) of data in a sugar-cube-sized crystal

3.1.5 OPTICAL PROCESSOR The processor is the brain of a computer. The design of an e f f i c i e n t a n d r e l i a b l e processor for optical computer requires development of various transistors and logic gates circuits in the submicron values. The optical transistors and logic gates have been still in developing conditions. Even though there are no all-optical processors available commercially, there are optoelectronic hybrid optical processors available. I n t e l h a s a l r e a d y d e s i g n e d a n d created a photonic processor,which is an optoe l e c t r o n i c h y b r i d p r o cessor. The processor is an entirely solid s t a t e p h o t o n i c processor

assembly a chip which processes data as light waves, without the need for m i c r o s c o p i c y e t m o v a b l e , p a r t s . T h e p r o c e s s o r s c e r a m i c m a t e r i a l b a s e d o n indium phosphide that could produce a monochromatic wavelength of laser light when electricity is applied to it, and could also be produced as a wafer that bonds to a silicon substrate. That major development eliminated the need

for movable gratings that refract laser light from a multiple-wavelength source, so that a single wavelength could emerge.

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CHAPTER 4 MERITS AND DEMERITS

4.1 MERITS
Visible-light and IR beams, unlike electric currents, pass through each other without interacting. Several (or many) laser beams can be shone so their paths intersect, but there is no interference among the beams, even when they are confined essentially to two dimensions. Electric currents must be guided around each other, and this makes threedimensional wiring necessary. Thus, an optical computer, besides being much faster than an electronic one, might also be smaller. Another claimed advantage of optics is that it can reduce power consumption, but an optical communication system will typically use more power over short distances than an electronic one. This is because the shot noise of an optical communication channel is greater than the thermal noise of an electrical channel which, from information theory, means that we require more signal power to archive the same data capacity. However, over longer distances and at greater data rates the loss in electrical lines is sufficiently large that optical communications will comparatively use a lower amount of power. As communication data rates rise, this distance becomes shorter and so the prospect of using optics in computing systems becomes more practical. Moreover optical devices which are made up of organic materials are much economical when compared to the electronic devices which are made up of inorganic materials (silicon). Some of advantages of optical computer over electrical computer are Small size Increased speed Low heating Reconfigurable Scalable for larger or small networks More complex functions done faster Applications for Artificial Intelligence Less power consumption (500 microwatts per interconnect length vs. 10 mW for electrical)
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4.2 DEMERITS
1. Todays materials require much high power to work in consumer products, coming up with the right materials may take five years or more. 2. Optical computing using a coherent source is simple to compute and understand, but it has many drawbacks like any imperfections or dust on the optical components will create unwanted interference pattern due to scattering effects. Incoherent processing on the other hand cannot store phase information.

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CHAPTER 5 APPLICATIONS

5.1 APPLICATIONS
Lasers, fibers, and optical components have already proven their reliability and high levels of performance in many applications such as CD-ROM drives, laser printers, photocopiers and scanners, Storage Area Networks (SANs), optical switches, all-optical data networks, holographic storage devices, and biometric devices at airports to track weapons and drugs. At the same time, the promise of optical computing comes from the many advantages that optical interconnections and optical integrated circuits have over their electronic counterparts. Optical computing is immune to electromagnetic interference and free from electrical short circuits and proves to be handier when compared to the electronic computing machines in the given circumstances. Moreover photons of different colors can travel together in the same fiber or cross each other in free space without interference or cross-talk. Since photons have low-loss transmission and provide large bandwidth, they offer multiplexing capacity for communicating several channels in parallel without interference. Optical materials are compact, lightweight, inexpensive to manufacture, more facile with stored information than magnetic materials, and possess superior storage density and accessibility compared to magnetic materials. Progress in holographic storage devices can enable storage of the entire U.S. Library of Congress onto a sugar-cube-size hologram. Furthermore, optical parallel data processing is easier and less expensive than electronic. In addition, optical computing systems offer computational speeds more than 107 times faster than the currently fastest electronic systems. This means a computation that takes a conventional computer more than 11 years to solve would take an optical computer less than one hour.

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CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE

6.1 CONCLUSION
The building blocks, such as all-optical logic gates, optical switches, optical memory, and optical interconnections are all available, but we still dont have an optical computing system. There are several factors impeding the technology, the most important of which are cascadability, material development, and funding. Cascadability to integrate a large number of all-optical gates is a highly complex problem and a major obstacle in the way of building a complete optical computing system. Binary half adders data processors, which combine several optical logic gates, are the basic building blocks of binary operations. Nonlinear optical mechanisms play important roles in ultra-fast, all-optical logic gates and optical switches. Most of the nonlinear mechanisms in these switches require pumping high optical power into the system for these devices to function. However, the high optical power in the system has the disadvantage of generating undesirable signals such as stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and self-phase modulations (SPM), which might affect the system's reliability. Material scientists and chemists, therefore, have the challenging problem of finding materials with adequate response at low power and at the same time demonstrate reliability, speed, and optical efficiency. Furthermore, development of an optical computer is an interdisciplinary enterprise requiring coordination and funding of optical engineers, material scientists, chemists, physicists, computer architects, and representatives of other disciplines. Government funding incentives, to fill a gap created by industry's return-on-investment requirements can encourage formation of such teams and expedite development of optical computer systems. It is projected that the development of a bulky prototype optical within the next 1015 years. With the current level of progress in the area of optical computing research, it may easily take up to 1520 years before optical computers commonly appear on our desktops.

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6.2 FUTURE SCOPE

The Ministry of Information Technology has initiated a photonic development program. Under this program some funded projects are continuing in fiber optic highspeed network systems. Research is going on for developing new laser diodes, photo detectors, and nonlinear material studies for faster switches. Research efforts on nano particle thin film or layer studies for display devices are also in progress. At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, efforts are in progress to generate a white light source from a diode-case based fiber amplifier system in order to provide WDM communication channel

Fig 6.1 Future trends of optical computer

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REFERENCES

MA: MIT Press. ISBN 0262061120.

McAulay,Alastair D. (1991). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0471632422. Ibrahim TA, Amarnath K, Kuo LC, Grover R, Van V, Ho PT. Photonic logic NOR gate based on two symmetric microring resonators. Opt Lett. 2004 Dec 1;29(23):2779-81. Biancardo M et al. A potential and ion switched molecular photonic logic gate, Chem. Commun., 2005, (31), 3918-3920 J. Jahns Feitelson, Dror G. (1988).. Cambridge, and S. H. Lee, eds., "Optical Computing Hardware", Academic Press, Boston (1994). BARROS S., GUAN S. & ALUKAIDEY T., "An MPP reconfigurable architecture using free-space optical interconnects and Petri net configuring" in Journal of System Architecture (The EUROMICRO Journal) Special Double Issue on Massively Parallel Computing Systems vol. 43, no. 6 & 7, pp. 391402, April 1997 D. Goswami, "Optical Computing", Resonance, June 2003; ibid July 2003. Web Archive of www.iisc.ernet.in/academy/resonance/July2003/July2003p8-21.html

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